


You're The Best Thing (That's Ever Been Mine)

by directorsharpie



Series: If This Is What It Takes Universe [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Kid!Fic, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:00:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 41,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26953276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/directorsharpie/pseuds/directorsharpie
Summary: After months and months of looking for a house in Star City, they had finally found one. It was a fairly large house, with five bedrooms and three bathrooms. They planned to turn one of the rooms into a home office and use the others as guest bedrooms. The garden was also quite big, which was important to them when they were looking at the various homes because Riley loved to play outside; she probably spent more time in the garden than she did inside.“Do you think the apartment is sad that we’re leaving?” Riley askedorSara and Ava are completely settled in their domestic life (while still travelling through time) and want to have another child.
Relationships: Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Series: If This Is What It Takes Universe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1739776
Comments: 59
Kudos: 181





	1. one

After months and months of looking for a house in Star City, they had finally found one. It was a fairly large house, with five bedrooms and three bathrooms. They planned to turn one of the rooms into a home office and use the others as guest bedrooms. The garden was also quite big, which was important to them when they were looking at the various homes because Riley loved to play outside; she probably spent more time in the garden than she did inside. 

“Do you think the apartment is sad that we’re leaving?” Riley asked from where she was standing beside Ava. She had her Captain Marvel backpack on her shoulders and her hands were gripping onto the straps as she looked up and Ava with a sad expression on her face. 

“I don’t think so, I think the apartment will be excited to have new people living here, what about you? Are you sad that we’re leaving?” Ava questioned, she chewed on her bottom lip nervously when Riley scrunched up her face. When they started seriously looking into moving from DC to Star City they had double and triple checked that Riley was okay with it. Luckily for them, the small girl was on board with it immediately because it meant that she could see her grandpa and aunt Laurel more often. 

“I don’t know, I think I’m a tiny bit sad because I will miss my bedroom and my friends but that’s okay because mama said that I get to decorate my new bedroom however I want to, I’m excited about that, and Aunt Laurel said that we can have more sleepovers now that we live closer!” Riley exclaimed, her eyes lighting up at the thought of sleeping over at Laurel’s house. “She said that we can paint uncle Tommy’s nails too,” she giggled at that, her uncle was a serious businessman, and the thought of him having bright pink nails was amusing to the small girl. 

Laurel and Tommy had reconnected when Sara was able to save Laurel from getting killed, since then their relationship had been better than ever. It was so good in fact that the two of them got married shortly after Sara and Ava legally adopted Riley. The small girl was over the moon about the fact that she got to be the flower girl. Sara was the maid of honor and Ava, along with Felicity, Dinah, and Thea got the role of the bridesmaids. It was a small wedding. But, beautiful nonetheless. 

“That sounds exciting!” Ava said enthusiastically and Riley nodded her head in agreement. 

“Are you all ready to go my loves?” Sara’s voice came from behind them. Her hands rested on Riley’s shoulders as she glanced around the room to see what they were looking at. 

“Mhmm, I think I want to say goodbye to my bedroom one last time though,” Riley said softly looking up at Sara and Ava with hopeful eyes. 

“Okay, go on, don’t take too long though baby, we have to leave soon.”

Riley nodded her head and all but sprinted up the stairs towards her room, leaving Sara and Ava standing in the empty space where the couch once was. All of the shelves around where the TV used to be, that were once filled with pictures of the three of them with the Legends, Quentin, Laurel, and various other people, were now bare. It looked kind of sad. 

“You okay babe?” Sara asked when she noticed tears welling up in Ava’s eyes. The taller blonde nodded her head and quickly blinked away her tears. 

“I don’t know why I’m getting upset over this, it’s just an apartment, our dream home is waiting in Star City for us,” Ava wiped away the stray tear that rolled down her cheek. Ava leaned into Sara slightly, resting her head on the smaller woman’s shoulder. Sara instinctively wrapped an arm around her to pull her impossibly closer. 

“This place is full of memories, from when we first started dating and we baked cookies and ended up throwing flour at each other, the night you asked me to move in, the first night Riley was here with us and our first Christmas as a family, everywhere you look in this apartment there’s a memory there, it’s not just an apartment Aves this was our home for a while, but we have so many more memories to make in the new house,” Sara said and Ava nodded her head against her shoulder. 

“You’re right, we should probably go and check on her,” Ava said when she realized that Riley was still upstairs. The two women headed upstairs and found Riley laid on the floor in the middle of her empty bedroom, staring up at the ceiling. 

“Ry Ry are you okay?” Sara whispered softly as she and Ava got down onto the floor to lay beside their daughter. 

“I don’t know, I think I’m sad, I’m excited to be able to live closer to grandpa and Aunt Laurel and Uncle Tommy but I like it here too, I like my bedroom and-” Riley cut herself off when a sob escaped her lips. The two women sat up immediately and saw tears streaming down Riley’s face. 

“Shhh, we’ve got you, baby, we’ve got you,” Sara pulled the small girl onto her lap and held her tightly as she rocked slightly to help calm Riley down. 

“What’s wrong honey? You were so excited earlier,” Ava ran her fingers through Riley’s soft brown locks and let the palm of her hand rest against Riley’s cheek. The girl leaned into the touch and her tears had subsided. 

“I’m scared,” she whispered and the two women looked at one another then back at their daughter with concern on their faces. 

“Scared? What are you scared of?” Sara questioned and Riley looked a little hesitant, almost as if she was worried to tell them the truth. She took her time and tried to find the best words to fully express herself. 

“I have to go to a new school. What if they don’t like me? I’m not good at making friends I don’t want to not have any friends,” Riley said quietly, her voice was so soft and vulnerable that if the room wasn’t as quiet as it was then they definitely wouldn’t have heard what she said. 

“Oh sweetheart, you’re going to make friends I know you will because you’re such a sweet and caring girl, anyone would be lucky to have you as a friend,” Ava said and it seemed to help quell her fears, as a small nervous smile made its way onto her face. 

“Mommy’s right you know, you don’t have to worry about school or making friends because everyone is going to love you, you’re going to meet so many new people and have so many friends,” Sara pressed a kiss to Riley’s head and pulled her a little closer so that she could wrap her arms around her again. 

“Is that the only thing that was upsetting you?” Ava questioned. 

Riley’s nose scrunched up a little as she thought about the answer to Ava’s question, “mhmm I think so, it’s just sad. I like it here and I’m going to miss my room and my best friend a lot.” 

“I know, it’s going to take a little while to get used to everything, but this is a new adventure for all of us, it’s going to be fun you get to decorate your room however you like and we can come back sometimes so that you can see Noah,” Sara said and Riley nodded her head. Ava quickly glanced down at her watch, her eyes widened in surprise when she noticed the time. 

“Babe, we need to go,” Ava whispered and Sara nodded her head in agreement. She managed to stand up with Riley still clinging to her. “Are you ready honey?”

“I think so, goodbye room,” Riley said softly as she looked around the room. Ava opened a portal to the living room of their new home in Star City. 

The three of them stepped through and were met with boxes full of their things with all of the Legends, Quentin, Laurel, and Tommy waiting around in the living room area for them. 

Sara placed Riley down and the small girl ran over to Quentin’s side and convinced him to join her in the backyard. 

Meanwhile, everyone else (besides Zari) began moving the boxes to the correct rooms. Zari managed to sneak away and join Riley in the backyard, while Quentin joined in with helping move the boxes. 

With everyone working together, it didn’t take them long to be done with all of the boxes. Meaning that Ava could finally start putting things in their correct places. She dug through one of the boxes that were labeled kitchen and found the cleaning supplies, it didn’t take her long to start scrubbing down the entire kitchen. 

Sara was sprawled out on the couch that was thankfully no longer covered in boxes. Laurel nudged her legs off and sat down beside her, earning a glare from her younger sister. Tommy and Quentin soon joined them along with the Legends. Ava was still cleaning and Riley was still in the backyard with Zari. 

“Babe, come sit,” Sara whined, she couldn’t see the taller woman but she knew that she was contemplating whether to go to Sara or carry on cleaning. “We can do that later together, have a little break.”

Ava appeared in the doorway to the living room with a tired smile on her face. Sara stood up to let Ava sit on the couch before she settled on Ava’s lap. Ava wrapped her arms around Sara’s waist immediately and buried her face in the crook of her neck. 

Moments later Riley came bounding into the living room with Zari not too far behind her. The small girl had a huge grin on her face and her eyes were bright with excitement. 

“The garden is so cool! Can I have my soccer ball please, I want to play,” Riley asked, somehow making her eyes big and round. 

“You might have to wait a little while, I don’t know which box it’s in,” Sara said and the small girl practically deflated. “Don’t you want to eat lunch first?”

“Mhmm, can we get a burger?” Riley asked and everyone in the room agreed with the meal choice. Riley and Quentin were the ones to go out and grab the food for everyone. 

They weren’t gone too long. When they returned Quentin had an armful of food and Riley had a soccer ball under her arm. 

“Mommy look!” Riley held up the new ball in front of Ava, who feigned excitement and Sara just looked at her dad with a slightly unimpressed look on her face. 

“She already has so many soccer balls.”

“I know but she’s my only grandchild, I can buy her whatever I want. Besides, who can say no to that face,” Quentin said as he placed the food on the coffee table and everyone dived in. Sara rolled her eyes and grabbed a couple of burgers for herself and Ava. 

Everyone ate their lunch and then got back to helping unpack everything. As it got later people started to leave, the Legends all left together only to reappear seconds later with a small box. 

“We forgot to give you the housewarming gift,” Ray said with an apologetic look on his face as he held the box out in front of him. Ava carefully took it off of him and took the lid off, to reveal what looked like a speaker. She took it out of the box and showed it to Sara. 

“Good evening, Captain and Director Lance.”

“It’s Gideon!” Ray had a smile on his face that reached from ear to ear. 

“Really? Hey Giddy,” Riley exclaimed.

“Hello miss Lance.”

“We thought that it might be helpful to have Gideon here, that way you don’t have to worry about what is happening on the ship because you can just ask Gideon,” Nate explained.

“Thank you for this.” 

After that the Legends actually left that time, leaving Quentin, Laurel, and Tommy in the living room with them. Ava poured out some more wine (and non-alcoholic wine for Laurel and Quentin), for the three of them. They had fallen into a comfortable silence when Laurel jumped up from her seat, pulling Tommy with her. She looked a little nervous with her hands tightly gripping onto Tommy’s, he gave her a reassuring nod to help calm her nerves. 

“While we’re all together, there’s something we need to tell you,” Laurel’s voice shook slightly as Ava and Sara looked at each other with raised brows. “We’re having a baby!” She blurted out. 

The four of them jumped up and engulfed the two of them in hugs. Quentin shook Tommy’s hand before pulling him into a tight hug. Riley was clinging to Laurel, her arms were wrapped around her waist as she mumbled something into her stomach.

“Congratulations!” Ava exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around her sister-in-law. “How far along are you?”

“Around three months,” Laurel’s smile was bigger than Sara had ever seen it. Their entire lives Laurel had talked about getting married with a big white wedding, followed by the house with a white picket fence and a couple of kids running around the house. Her dreams were coming true and everything seemed to be falling into place for her sister, she couldn’t be happier for her. There was no doubt in Sara’s mind that Laurel was going to be the most amazing mother, the way she interacted with Riley solidified the fact that she was going to be incredible. 

Everyone sat back in their seats and Laurel told them about the day she found out she was pregnant, they had been trying for a baby for a few months and it finally worked for them. The huge smile was on Laurel’s face the entire time she was talking about the baby. 

They remained in their spots on the couch and talked late into the night, it wasn’t until they heard Riley’s soft snores that they realized how late it actually was. Much to Sara’s surprise, Ava insisted that she open a portal to their homes for them so that they didn’t have to drive home. They agreed immediately and Ava opened a portal into Laurel and Tommy’s living room before doing the same for Quentin. 

Once the three of them had left, Sara and Ava took Riley up to her bedroom and tucked her into bed. Luckily, Nate and Behrad put Riley’s bed together for her so that she didn’t have to sleep on her mattress on the floor. Ava managed to navigate her way around the multiple boxes that Nate and Behrad had just left in the middle of the room, she gently placed Riley under the covers. 

“Should we change her into her pajamas?” Ava whispered.

“No, she’s wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt she should be comfy enough,” Sara whispered back and Ava nodded her head despite it being almost pitch black in the room, the only source of light was the soft glow of the moon from behind the clouds. 

“Night, night sweetheart,” Sara pressed a soft kiss to the girl’s forehead before taking a step backward for Ava to be able to kiss her goodnight. 

“Goodnight honey, sleep tight,” Ava whispered, she made sure that Simba was tucked under her arm and pulled the covers up a little higher, before kissing her forehead.

The two of them left the room and left the door open ever so slightly so that there was a sliver of light seeping into the room from the hallway, just in case she woke up in the night from a nightmare or just in case she was a little confused from being in a new place. They walked into their own bedroom hand in hand, only letting go of one another when Sara flopped down onto the mattress that was on the floor.

“We really should have put the bed together,” Ava sighed, she removed her t-shirt and bra and quickly replaced them with her pajama shirt. She did the same with her pants and crawled into bed beside Sara. 

The smaller woman immediately moved to rest her head on Ava’s chest, her arm was slung over her waist and her leg was draped over Ava’s thighs. Ava wrapped her arm around Sara’s back, her hand came up to rest on Sara’s hip where she began to mindlessly draw small patterns on the exposed skin of her hip. 

“Mhmm, we should have but at least I have my favorite pillow with me,” Sara mumbled into Ava’s chest. The taller blonde just smiled at her wife, despite it being completely dark in the room. They fell into a comfortable silence with Ava still drawing circles on Sara’s hip.

“I can’t believe Laurel’s pregnant, did you even know they were trying?” Ava whispered and she felt Sara shake her head against her chest. 

“No, she never said anything, they probably wanted to wait until they were sure it was actually happening before they told anyone.”

They fell back into silence and Ava’s mind wouldn’t turn off. All she had been able to think about since Laurel revealed that she was pregnant, was her and Sara having another kid. She thought about them having a baby, there was no way that Sara would want to be the one to get pregnant, that would mean that she wouldn’t be able to go out on missions; that would send her a little crazy. It would probably send them both a little crazy. 

Ava, on the other hand, she could absolutely imagine herself being pregnant. She had never really thought much about getting pregnant, but now that was all that was on her mind. The thought of creating and growing a life inside of her was a little overwhelming to her, and she wasn’t even pregnant yet. 

“I can hear you thinking from here, what’s up?” Sara moved slightly so that she looked up at her, despite it being completely dark. 

“It’s nothing, really,” Ava tried to sound convincing but it didn’t really work, her voice wavered slightly. Besides, even if her voice didn’t do that, Sara would have known that she was lying anyway because she knows her wife too well to know when something is on her mind. 

“Ava.”

“Okay fine, since Laurel told us about the pregnancy, I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like for us to have a baby. I’ve never thought that much about it until now, but I think I want to be the one to get pregnant, but obviously, it’s something that we need to have a much bigger conversation about. We can’t just decide to have a baby, I mean we just moved into the new house, we…” Ava’s voice trailed off when she felt Sara pull away from her. She took that as a sign of Sara wanting to stop the conversation because it wasn’t what she wanted for them. “I’m sorry, I know we agreed that we didn’t want normal, I just thought we have Riley and she wants a sibling too. We don’t have to do the whole pregnancy thing if you don’t want to, we can look into adoption or something else I don’t know.” 

Suddenly the room was no longer pitch black, instead, it was illuminated with a soft yellow glow, coming from Sara’s bedside lamp (that was on the floor beside their mattress). Ava glanced to her side to see Sara looking at her with a soft smile on her face. She laid down on her side, propping herself up slightly with her elbow so that she could see Ava properly. 

“I would love nothing more than to have another kid with you, Ava when we first started this we agreed that our lives and our relationship was never going to be normal. But we both know that we can’t time travel forever, and as we have already experienced a little bit of normalcy is good for us and it’s exciting. I think we should wait until we’re settled here first but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately,” Sara said causing Ava’s head to snap in her direction. 

“You have? Why didn’t you say anything?” 

Sara shrugged her shoulders and gently ran her fingers through Ava’s hair, “I don’t know? Everything we have right now is perfect, and we had the stress of moving so I just thought it would probably be better to wait until we’re settled and less stressed out.”

“Oh, I guess you’re right.”

“Come on let’s sleep, we can have a much bigger conversation about this later, right now I’m exhausted and I have a feeling we’re gonna get woken up pretty early tomorrow,” Sara said and Ava nodded her head. She reached over and flicked the light off before settling back down on the bed with her head resting on Ava’s chest. 

She could hear the faint thump of Ava’s heartbeat. It was a relaxing sound. Especially when she woke up from a nightmare, the sound of Ava’s heart paired with her strong arms wrapped around her holding her close, it reminded her exactly where she was and calmed her down almost instantly. 

She was brought out of her thoughts at the feeling of Ava pressing her lips against her temple. Followed by the soft mumble of ‘I love you.’


	2. two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Mommy’s right you know, remember last year when it was your first day of school ever? You were scared and you got upset when we had to leave you but you had such a good time and you made so many, new friends. That’s exactly what this is going to be like okay?”
> 
> or
> 
> It's Riley's first day back at a new school and Ava has a rough day at work.

It took them a couple of months to get fully settled into the new home, and before they knew it, it was September and they were taking Riley to her first day at her new school. 

The small girl was trying her very best to hide the fact that she was extremely nervous, but both women could see right through their daughter. When she was nervous she always kind of clung to Ava, even as she was getting a little older she still did it, even if she tried to do it a little more subtly. As they walked through the school gates and up to her classroom, she wasn’t even touching Ava but she was walking so close to her side that Ava kept accidentally bumping into her. 

They came to a stop when they reached her classroom door. 

“I don’t want to go in, can’t I just stay with you in your office mommy? Please I’ll be good, I’ll do some school work there instead, please I don’t want to go, please don’t make me,” tears welled up in her, usually bright blue eyes, they spilled over when she blinked. She looked between her moms with a pleading look on her face. They had known that she was scared but they had spent the entire summer break making sure that she was ready and every time they talked about it she assured them that she was ready and kind of excited. Clearly, that was all a lie. 

Ava crouched down in front of the small girl and silently pulled her into a hug before they pulled away from one another and Ava moved her hands to wipe the tears from Riley’s face. 

“You’re going to be absolutely fine, you’re going to have so much fun and meet so many new people and you’re going to come home and tell us all about your day and how exciting it’s been,” Ava said when she noticed the worried look in Riley’s eyes. Sara got closer to the two of them and swiped some hair off of Riley’s face. 

“Mommy’s right you know, remember last year when it was your first day of school ever? You were scared and you got upset when we had to leave you but you had such a good time and you made so many, new friends. That’s exactly what this is going to be like okay?” Sara said but neither of their words seemed to be helping in any way. “You know when I was your age I was scared to go to school too, but grandpa convinced me that it was all going to be fine and that I would actually enjoy it, and you know what he was right. By the time the day was over I had no idea why I was ever afraid, I had so much fun and made so many friends. That’s exactly how this is going to be for you, you’re going to love it baby and we will be right here to pick you up at the end of the day, okay?”

Riley sniffled and wiped her eyes with her jacket sleeve. Ava pulled her back into a tight embrace, and Sara pressed a kiss to her forehead. Ava stood up and held her hand out for Riley to hold onto, she did exactly that and the three of them walked into the classroom together. 

“Hi, I’m Miss Griffin, what is your name sweetheart?” The woman asked with a soft, welcoming smile on her face. She looked as though she was in her mid-twenties, she had her black hair and green eyes. She looked very friendly, but that didn’t stop Riley from being afraid. Instead of answering the teacher’s question she wrapped her arms around Ava’s thigh and hid behind her, with her eyes squeezed shut. 

The voices around her all blurred together and she gripped onto Ava a little tighter. This time it did nothing to calm her nerves because Ava had managed to pry her hands off of her and had gently nudged her in the direction of the area where she had to leave her coat and bag. The teacher carried on talking but Riley paid no attention, she just glanced around the room and the colors were suddenly too bright and the voices were way too loud in her head. She became hyper-aware of the kids looking in her direction as if she were an alien. 

Once the teacher had given them the full tour the bell rang and Sara and Ava had to leave. They said their goodbyes to Riley and it caused another wave of tears. This time they were full-on sobs, the teacher jumped in before Ava and Sara could do anything to help calm her down. She distracted her and motioned for the two of them to leave, which they hesitantly did. 

The drive home was silent. Sara kept her eyes trained on the road and focused on driving, while Ava sat in the passenger seat with tears in her eyes, that were yet to spill over. She sniffled softly and Sara wordlessly reached over and laced their fingers together, gently squeezing Ava’s hand to reassure her. 

“Are we awful parents for leaving her there?” Ava questioned when they pulled into the driveway. 

“No, it’s not easy and we both hated leaving her there in the state she was in, but she has to go to school babe, she will be fine I know she will. Remember when we took her to her first-ever day of school last year some parents had to literally drag their kids into the classroom, it’s a new experience for them, I think she took it so hard because she was probably expecting it to be the same as her old school and it’s completely different it’s like twice the size it was probably a little intimidating for her.” Sara said and Ava nodded along. 

She was right, of course, she was right. Riley was going to be fine, it’s a new place and every new place is a little scary. 

They got out of the car and headed into the house. Ava rushed around to grab everything she needed for work, while Sara was sprawled out on the couch watching some random news channel. 

“I have to go, I don’t want to be late,” Ava slipped her shoes on and kissed Sara goodbye before opening a portal to the lobby area of the Bureau. The portal closed with a whoosh sound and Sara settled back onto the couch. 

She watched the news for a little longer until she decided to go and make a cup of coffee. Just as she was about to sit down at the kitchen island with the mug in her hand, her phone rang. She quickly pulled it from her back pocket hoping that it wasn’t Riley’s school calling to tell them that she was still very upset. Luckily it was Laurel, she slid the green button along the bottom of the screen and held the phone up to her ear. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Sara questioned a hint of suspicion in her voice because Laurel should be working and she knew her sister would never pass up the opportunity to work. That worried her slightly because whenever Laurel called during the day it was usually with some not so great news. 

“Nothing, I’m just calling to ask what you’re doing.”

“I’m at home, I just made a cup of coffee, why? What are you doing?”

“I’m at home, Tommy and I are going to the doctors for a checkup,” Laurel said and Sara could hear the excitement in her sister's voice. She was six months along and was practically glowing. “But, that’s not what I’m calling to talk about, how is Ava? How are you? Really. Don’t lie to me, I know you’ve been worried about Riley going back to school, how was she? Did she go into class okay?”

“Ava’s at work she was a little emotional because Riley wouldn’t go into class, she started sobbing, it was awful Laur, she was so upset.”

“Poor thing, did she tell you why she was so upset? Also, Dad said that he’s got a gift for her, to celebrate her first day at her new school, hopefully, that will cheer her up.” 

“Hopefully, I’ve never seen her as upset as she was this morning, everything we did, it didn’t help at all I think it made it worse for her. She could barely speak let alone tell us why she was upset. I’m worried about her, it was so hard to leave her she just kept crying, she seemed a little out of it too when she looked around the classroom and at the other kids it was like something switched and she realized where she was or something and she just sobbed.”

“I’m sure she will be absolutely fine, it’s probably because it’s a new school with people she’s never met before. And this time she didn’t see the class before the first day back like she did last year,” Laurel reasoned and Sara let out a sigh as she ran a hand over her face. She nodded her head even though her sister couldn’t see her. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right. What time is your appointment?” 

“In an hour.”

“Are you finally going to find out if it’s a boy or girl?” Sara asked excitedly. Laurel and Tommy could have found out the sex of their baby months ago but decided that they wanted it to be a surprise. But Sara was impatient. She wanted to know and so did Riley. 

“You already know the answer to that, we’re waiting until they’re born,” Laurel said and Sara could practically hear her sister's eyes rolling through the phone. 

“Whatever, Ry and I have got a bunch of clothes with dinosaurs on and a stuffed toy, Ava wanted no part in it she claimed it was too childish so she chose some other stuff for the little cabbage.”

“Did you just call my baby a cabbage?”

“Yeah, that’s how big they are. I saw it somewhere,” Sara said as if it was obvious why she called the baby that. Laurel just let a humming sound in response. “Anyway, dad is coming over for dinner tonight, you and Tommy should join us.”

“Sounds good, we’ll be there but I have to go we’re gonna be late for the appointment, see you tonight.”

They said their goodbyes and ended the call. Sara placed her phone on the counter and took a sip of her now-cold coffee, her face scrunching up in disgust when she realized that it was cold. She poured it down the sink and moved back into the living room. 

The rest of the day seemed to drag by, Sara’s mind was constantly floating between being worried for her daughter and how she was handling her first day back at school, and then she was worried for her wife who was upset over leaving Riley in the state that she was in. 

However, before she knew it, it was 3 pm and Ava was back home. The taller woman discarded her shoes by the door and she carefully draped her blazer over the back of the armchair in the living room before striding over to her wife who was sprawled out on the couch with her legs resting on the back of it. 

“Hey babe, how was your day?” She questioned after they greeted one another with a soft kiss. Ava sat down beside her and gently moved Sara’s legs so that they were over Ava’s legs instead of on the back of the couch. 

“Awful, I didn’t get much done. I've been too worried about her. Which is a little stupid because she’s going to be fine and I’m sure she had a great time but she’s our baby and I can’t get the image of her crying the way she did out of my mind,” Ava said and Sara sat up immediately and tucked a strand of hair behind Ava’s ear, she placed a kiss to her temple before lacing their fingers together. She gave her hand a gentle squeeze in the process. 

“Hey, no, it’s not stupid at all. It was a difficult morning, neither of us expected her to react the way she did, we should probably set off now though so we aren’t late,” Sara said and Ava nodded her head. Before they knew it they were standing in the courtyard outside of the classroom, under a large tree. 

The kids were let out of the classroom shortly after they arrived and Riley was one of the last ones out. Her coat was hanging off of her shoulders slightly and the sleeves were bunched up around the elbow area. She was holding her backpack by the little handle at the top causing it to scrape along the concrete with every few steps that she took. Her face lit up when she saw the two of them standing under the tree and her slow steps turned into a sprint towards them. When she finally reached them she launched herself into Ava’s arms, making her stumble back a little when she caught the small girl in her arms. 

“Hey honey, did you have a good day?” Ava asked as she wrapped her arms around Riley. 

Riley buried her face into Ava’s neck and shook it in response to her question. 

“Why? What happened?” The worry was clear in Ava’s voice. 

“I wanna go to my old school, nobody likes me here,” Riley mumbled and Ava closed her eyes and wrapped her arms a little tighter around Riley. 

“I’m sure they do baby,” Sara said as she gently ran her hand up and down Riley’s back. The small girl just grunted in disagreement. 

“No they don’t!” Riley exclaimed, she began to wriggle in Ava’s arms, indicating that she wanted to be let down. Once her feet were on the ground she picked her backpack up from the floor, where she had dropped it, and put it on her back. “They think I’m strange and I don’t know why, I tried to make friends but everyone just ignored me because they already have friends,” Riley explained, with tears now welling up in her eyes. 

“Hey, look at me, you aren’t strange and I know it’s hard Ry but you have to give it some time. You will make friends eventually, I know you will because you are amazing. They probably feel just as scared as you because you’re new and it’s hard meeting new people but soon enough it won’t be as scary and friendships will happen naturally,” Sara explained as she crouched down in front of Riley and tried to get her to understand that it wasn’t going to be like that forever. 

“I want to go home,” she mumbled. 

“Okay come on honey, let's go home, grandpa, aunt Laurel, and Uncle Tommy are coming over for dinner, that should make you feel a little better,” Ava held her hand out and Riley grabbed onto it. Her eyes lit up once again at the mention of three of her favorite people. 

They made it home fairly quickly and Riley was extremely quiet. They knew why, but it didn’t make it feel any better. Usually, she wouldn’t shut up, she liked to tell them all about her day; in great detail. The second the three of them stepped through the front door Riley dropped her bag to the ground and kicked her shoes off before running upstairs. It didn’t take her long to do whatever she was doing and when she returned she had changed into some more comfortable clothes that were very mismatched. 

Her shirt was bright red with a small llama on the front of it, on the lower half of her body she was wearing her favorite lilac colored shorts with the star city hockey team’s logo on the front of them. 

“What do you want for dinner sweetie?” Ava asked when Riley plopped down on the empty seat next to her. She leaned into Ava’s side and shrugged her shoulders. 

“The mac n cheese that you make!” She exclaimed and they should have known that that is what she would have wanted. She had become slightly obsessed with Mac n cheese lately, she stayed with the legends one weekend while Sara and Ava went away and she had Mac n cheese for every meal. But that was a secret between her and the legends because Ava would definitely not allow her to have that for every meal for three days in a row. 

Sara nodded her head and grabbed the ingredients for the meal. She was about to start preparing it all when Ava got called back into work, something about the security system going down and someone escaping their cell. 

Ava left with a frustrated sigh and Riley joined Sara at the kitchen island. She watched in awe as Sara expectedly chopped things up, “mom do the thing!”

Sara knew exactly what she was talking about, she was the one who had to cut the meat for Christmas dinner and she twirled the knife in her hand without realizing that the six-year-old was across from her watching in amazement. Since then every time she had seen a knife in Sara’s hand she had asked her to ‘do the thing.’ Which earned her a glare from Ava every time she did it. 

She spun the knife in her hand and Riley had the biggest smile on her face, “again!”

Sara rolled her eye playfully before spinning the knife again. The two of them got on with making dinner and Riley seemed to cheer up a lot, she was getting back to her bright and bubbly self and the second Quentin walked through the front door you would never even know that Riley had, had a tough day. 

She ran towards him and he caught her in his arms, before engulfing her in a hug. She didn’t even have a chance to process her excitement of seeing her grandpa before Laurel and Tommy entered the house. She greeted them with hugs and they all made their way to the kitchen to find Sara. 

“Hey! Dinner is almost done, how was the appointment, how is the little cabbage doing?” Sara asked as she hugged her sister. 

“Stop calling them that! But the appointment was great the baby is growing exactly as they should be and they’re being extra active today,” Laurel winced as if on cue the baby kicked her just under her ribcage. 

They quickly moved into the living room whilst they waited for Ava to arrive home and for dinner to finish cooking. Riley was preoccupied with the comic book that Quentin had bought for her, to celebrate her first day back at school. While the others chatted amongst themselves. 

“When is mom coming back? I’m starving!” Riley said dramatically, tilting her head back slightly for dramatic effect. 

“I don’t know baby, soon and you aren’t starving you had a snack like an hour ago,” Sara raised an eyebrow at her daughter who just scrunched her face up into a frown. 

Seconds later a portal opened near the front door and Ava stepped through. She had blood on her clothes and in her hair, her eyes were bloodshot and her whole demeanor was completely different from how it was when she left just over an hour before. 

She could hear the voices in the living room and she wanted to avoid them as much as possible, all she wanted was to get in the shower and wash everything away. But, the second she walked past the doorway to the living room she heard Sara calling out her name. She came to a stop for a moment before she carried on walking and cursed to herself for not portalling directly into the bathroom. 

“Aves?” Sara’s voice came from the bottom of the stairs causing Ava to come to a stop and spin on her heel. The second Ava turned to face her wife, Sara’s eyes went wide and she rushed up to Ava. “What happened?”

“One of the prisoners escaped, they killed four of my agents, I tried to save them but their injuries were too bad. I called their families to tell them what happened, it was awful Sara,” Ava had tears rolling down her cheeks, Sara quickly pulled her into a hug. Ava cried into her shoulder for a few moments until she was able to compose herself enough to move away from Sara. 

“Go and shower, I’ll bring your dinner up here for you-”

“No, I’m good I can eat with everyone, I do need a shower though,” Ava said with a sad smile on her face as she gestured to her outfit with bloodstains on it. 

“Here, give me your clothes I’ll wash them,” Ava nodded her head and they headed to their bedroom, Ava quickly undressed and handed the clothes to Sara. Leaving her standing in her underwear with her arms wrapped around herself. 

Sara dropped the clothes onto the bed and pulled Ava into another hug. Even though the taller woman didn’t say it aloud, Sara knew her wife enough to know that she was blaming herself for what happened. 

“It’s not your fault babe, there was nothing that you could have done to stop it happening.”

Ava didn’t even have the energy to argue about it, she was so tired and every part of her body ached. So she just nodded in agreement and went into the bathroom. 

“I love you, don’t take too long Ry is getting hangry,” Sara called out and she heard a soft chuckle from behind the bathroom door. 

“I love you too,” Ava replied and with that Sara grabbed the clothes and headed back downstairs. She was going to put the clothes in the washing machine but stopped when she remembered that Ava preferred to have them dry cleaned. She decided to just throw them out and have Gideon fabricate some new ones for her. 

It didn’t take long for Ava to appear in the living room, her hair was slightly damp and tucked over one shoulder. She looked refreshed, and her face lit up when Riley jumped up from her spot on the couch and wrapped her arms around her, squeezing her slightly.

“I love you, mommy,” Riley mumbled and Ava’s heart melted, tears were welling up in her eyes but she quickly blinked them away and lifted Riley up into her arms. 

“I love you too,” Ava said softly before peppering kisses all over Riley’s face. Eliciting loud giggles from the small girl, the giggles quickly died down when Quentin called them to the table. She wriggled out of Ava’s embrace and sprinted towards the kitchen. “Honey, don’t run in the house, you’ll hurt yourself,” Ava’s voice trailed off when she realized that Riley definitely wasn’t listening to her. 

“You didn’t finish telling me how your first day back at school was, little miss,” Laurel said once everyone was seated around the table and eating their food. 

“Oh, I don’t like it, I’m never going back there,” Riley shrugged her shoulders and carried on eating. 

Laurel had to bite back her laughter at how casually she said it as if dropping out of school was the most logical thing to do in her situation. “Honey I don’t think you can just decide not to go, you have to learn things. You loved your old school, what happened?” 

“Nobody likes me.”

“It’s impossible to not like you, I’m sure tomorrow will be a lot better.”

“I’m not going,” Riley said without looking up from her plate. Her happy and relaxed demeanor was gone, now it was replaced with a sad frown on her face. “I don’t need to go anyway, I can teach myself and become the best hockey player in the world,” she said with a mouthful of food. 

“Don’t talk with food in your mouth,” Sara scolded and Riley immediately closed her mouth and looked at her mom with an apologetic look on her face. 

The topic quickly shifted from Riley’s day at school, when it became clear that the girl didn’t want to talk about it. Instead, they ended up talking about the baby, Laurel was literally glowing every time the word baby was mentioned. 

After dinner, Quentin helped Ava clear everything away. Sara offered to do it but Ava insisted that she wanted to do it, to keep her mind busy. 

“I’m sorry about what happened with your team, it’s never easy when you lose people you work with,” Quentin said softly as he dried the plate in his hands.

“I only spoke to them a few times, they were rookies and the damn Kelpie- it’s dangerous and they knew that they shouldn’t have been there. I’ve never had to do that before, I’ve never had to tell anyone’s family that their son, daughter, husband, wife, whatever, wouldn’t be coming home, it was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do,” Ava fought back the tears that were once again welling up in her eyes and stared down at the one remaining dish in the soapy water.

“It doesn’t get any easier either sweetheart, no matter how many times you do it, it’s always hard to tell a family that part of them wouldn’t be coming home for dinner one last time,” Quentin said. He contemplated lying to Ava and telling her that it would get easier, but that was a lie and he knew that Ava would see right through it, so instead, he just told her the truth. 

Ava nodded her head and finished the last dish before moving around the kitchen to put away the dishes that Quentin had already dried. 

The remainder of the evening was spent in the living room. However, nobody stayed for too long, the moment it was time for Riley to go to bed the three of them headed home. Leaving Sara and Ava alone once Riley was tucked up in bed. 

“Wine?” Sara asked from the kitchen.

“Please,” Ava said softly from where she sat on the couch in the living room. Seconds later Sara appeared beside her, she handed the glass of rose to her before sitting on the couch beside her, with her legs thrown over Ava’s thighs and her upper body slouched against the back of the couch.

They enjoyed the peaceful silence of the house, it was their favorite time of the day. Where they were just able to enjoy one another’s company with a glass of wine to get rid of the day’s stress. The only noises that could be heard were the distant sirens and car horns from the city. They sat like that for a few moments before Ava blurted out, “I don’t think we should wait any longer, I want to start trying for a baby.”

Sara was a little taken aback by the bold statement. They had agreed that they would wait until they were settled in the new house, which they were. She didn’t even have to think about it before she agreed with her wife. 

“Okay, yeah, let’s do it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, if you’re sure about it then so am I. We need to do some research on the best way to do it, but let’s not worry about that tonight. Tonight we should practice making one,” Sara said with a smirk on her face. Ava rolled her eyes at the last part but kissed Sara anyway. 

Their wine was forgotten, Ava placed it on the coffee table out of the way just in time, before Sara moved to straddle her thighs. She cupped Ava’s face and joined their lips together again, this time she was able to deepen the kiss, her tongue traced Ava’s bottom lip and the latter opened her mouth immediately. 

Sara’s hands moved from Ava’s face to the hem of her t-shirt, she was about to tug it up over Ava’s head when Ava stopped her. 

“Upstairs, we don’t want Riley to wake up and witness this,” Ava gestured between them with a small chuckle. Sara nodded her head in agreement and pulled Ava up from the couch and to their bedroom. Leaving the wine glasses abandoned on the coffee table.


	3. three

The following day, Riley went to school with great difficulty. She refused to get out of bed, and then she refused to get dressed and eat her breakfast, and when they actually made it to school the only way they could get her into the classroom is by bribing her with the promise of a movie night with her choice of movie and snacks. 

The day passed fairly quickly, Ava was swamped with paperwork and barely even had the chance to eat lunch. She ended up just eating a small bag of pretzels for lunch because they were there on her desk. She was too focused on making sure everything was correct before filing them away. 

Meanwhile, Sara was away on a mission in Washington DC, 2150. Rose Cleveland found herself wandering around the streets that were filled with pride flags on the outside of the row of buildings and some had them in the windows. The team managed to get her pretty quickly without any issues. Which was surprising.

“Okay Ray, Nate, and B take her back to her own time and we can work on flashing anyone who might have seen anything,” Sara said. The men nodded their heads and Behrad opened a portal to 1885, they stepped through with a very confused Rose and the portal closed behind them. 

The remaining team members split off to memory flash anyone who was in the area at the time Rose was there. Sara was walking towards a group of people who were staring at the spot where the portal opened and closed, but before she could reach them she was sidetracked by a poster in a store window. She contemplated whether or not she should go into the store, and ultimately she decided that she would just be in and out and that the people would probably still be there waiting when she got out. 

Which she was right about. She purchased her item and hid the bag under her jacket so none of the team would question her about it. Because, there was no doubt in her mind that they would, with the amount of time they spent together on the ship it was very rare for anyone to have a bit of privacy without at least one person getting involved. She quickly remembered that she was on a mission and memory flashed the small group of people and then the team was able to reconvene on the ship. 

“Take a break, we deserve it after five alerts back to back, we can debrief tomorrow,” Sara said and let out a sigh of relief when the rest of the team headed to their rooms without a single question as to why she was doing this. Ever since everything that happened with Mallus, Ava was very adamant about every single mission being documented in great detail, and to Sara’s credit, she did exactly that after every mission even if they were a little late every now and then. But, Sara was hoping that her purchase from 2150 would help Ava forget about the paperwork for a little while.

She headed to her quarters and changed out of the clothes she was wearing into something a lot more comfortable. She grabbed her phone from the nightstand and slipped it into her sweatpants pocket. 

“Gid what time is it back in Star City?”

“It is 1:30 am, and I believe that Miss Lance is rather upset with you for missing movie night,” Gideon said and Sara made sure to grab the item and portalled into her and Ava’s bedroom.

The second she stepped into the room she noticed Riley curled up in the bed with Ava’s arms protectively wrapped around her. The TV was playing to nobody, lighting up the room with a blue glow and letting off a low humming sound because Ava must have turned the volume way down when Riley fell asleep. 

Sara took a few strides across the room, careful not to wake either of them up, and opened her top drawer. She put the bag in there before sliding into bed, she turned the TV off and moved Riley’s leg slightly so that it wasn’t taking up half of Sara’s side of the bed. She gently tugged the covers over herself before glancing over to her girls to make sure she didn’t wake either of them, but she was met with Ava looking at her with tired eyes and a lopsided smile on her face. 

“You’re back late babe, did the missions go okay?” Ava whispered. 

“They surprisingly went off without a hitch, I’ve got something for us but we can talk about that tomorrow, go back to sleep babe,” Sara leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of Riley’s head before leaning over her and placing a soft kiss on Ava's lips. 

“Okay, g’night,” Ava mumbled before closing her eyes and falling back into a peaceful slumber. 

The next morning Sara dropped Riley off at school and portalled onto the Waverider to find the Legends all standing around the center console on the bridge. They did a quick mission debrief for yesterday’s mission and all headed their separate ways when Sara announced that she was heading over to the bureau to give the files to Ava. 

She portalled directly into her wife’s office only to find it completely empty with the lights off. She felt a wave of disappointment rush over her until she remembered Ava saying that she was stuck in meetings all day when they were having breakfast. She took a few big strides over to the desk, she grabbed a sticky note and a pen before writing out a small message and sticking it to the front of the file and leaving it in the middle of Ava’s desk. 

She portalled back to the Waverider and the rest of the day seemed to go by slower than ever. It seemed to go even slower when Ava called and said that she was going to be late. Sara cleaned away their dinner plates and covered Ava’s plate before putting it in the fridge. 

She then rejoined Riley at the table. The small girl was hunched over her homework that was spread across the table, her tongue stuck out slightly as she concentrated. 

“Do you need any help, baby?” Sara asked as she glanced over at the sheet of paper, Riley was scribbling a bunch of numbers next to one of the questions and had been doing so for around ten minutes. 

“No I got it,” Riley said before finally writing her final answer in the empty space under the question. 

“Yeah you do,” Sara said with a proud smile on her face as she watched her daughter fly through the remaining questions. She was about to suggest that they watch a movie to make up for Sara missing the movie night, the night before. But, before she could say anything Riley pulled out another homework sheet. This time she had to color in the state that she lived in one color, the states that she has visited in another, and the states that she wants to visit in another color. 

“How about when you have finished this one, we go and watch a movie, to make up for last night?” Sara suggested and Riley nodded her head and quickly began coloring the states in. 

“You only want to visit one state? Or are you leaving them blank so we can watch a movie sooner?” Sara asked with a raised brow. 

“I don’t even know what is there!” Riley gestured to the parts that were left blank. 

“Well you’ve been there,” Sara pointed to Arizona, “that’s where Aunt Laurel and Uncle Tommy got married, and we went to Hawaii with the legends remember?” Sara said and Riley quickly colored the states in before shoving everything back into her backpack. 

They ended up watching Spider-man. Which resulted in Ava walking through the front door to see Sara holding Riley above her head to make it seem as though the small girl was crawling on the ceiling. Even though in reality she was nowhere near the ceiling no matter how high Sara lifted her arms. 

“What is going on?” Ava asked with a mixture of amusement and slight panic on her face. 

“We’re playing Spider-Man!” Riley exclaimed and held her hand out in front of her and pretended to shoot a web from her wrist. Sara lowered her arms and swung her slightly towards Ava before placing her on the ground. The moment Riley’s feet were firmly on the floor the panic disappeared from Ava’s face. 

“Hi mommy,” Riley’s voice was muffled as she buried her face into Ava’s stomach as she wrapped her arms around her waist. 

“Hey, honey did you have a good day today?” Ava asked, there was hope in her voice. She wanted Riley to enjoy school again, it was awful seeing her so upset when she came home every day. 

“I got to play soccer at recess with some of the boys in my class but I think the girls thought it was weird, but then we got to learn about the different states which was fun!” Riley explained and while the usual excitement that came with talking about her day wasn’t there, there was a hint of it and that was all that mattered. 

Once Riley let go and moved to sit on the couch to continue watching the movie, Ava made her way over to Sara and pulled her into a hug, while placing a soft kiss to her lips. “Hi,” Ava said with a smile on her face when she pulled away. Her smile was a little lopsided and the tiredness was clear in her eyes. But the second she was in Sara’s arms the stress of the meetings melted away and her shoulders suddenly felt a little lighter. 

“How did the meetings go?” Sara questioned as she snaked her arms around Ava’s waist, underneath her blazer. 

“They were awful, men are awful, you give them a shred of responsibility and it goes to their head. I was the only woman in three of the meetings,” Ava sighed and sat down on the couch beside Riley, Sara followed suit and sat half on the couch and half on Ava’s lap. She reached over and gently tugged the tight bun lose and ran her fingers through Ava’s hair, digging her fingers in ever so slightly to massage Ava’s head. “Mmmm that feels nice,” Ava whispered as her eyes fluttered closed. She carried on doing that until Ava was almost falling asleep.

Later that night, after Riley was fast asleep in bed, Sara and Ava were on the couch with a glass of red wine in their hands. Sara’s legs were thrown over Ava’s thighs and Ava had her arms resting on top of Sara’s shins as the TV played to itself and the fireplace let off a soft orange glow around the room. 

“So what was the thing that you got for us?” Ava eventually asked. 

Sara’s eyes went a little wide before she composed herself and looked at the taller woman with a smirk on her face. She shot up off of the couch and reappeared moments later with a brown bag in her hands. 

“Okay, before you tell me how many protocols this is breaking, I asked Gideon to look into whether us using it would have consequences on the timeline and she couldn’t find anything so-”

She looked down at Ava who had a questioning look on her face, her eyebrow was raised and she was silently asking Sara what the hell she had done. In response, Sara just handed the bag to Ava. 

Ava opened the bag slightly, a little nervous to find out what it was. She peaked into the bag and looked up at Sara with flushed cheeks. 

“What is this? Well, I know what it is- just- what made you buy it we have plenty,” Ava stumbled over her words and the smirk on Sara’s face only made Ava’s cheeks redder. 

“We don’t have to use it, it’s just here as an option for us. The person in the store said that it’s mainly transgender people who buy it, it acts like a real penis, the woman behind the counter said you literally just attach it to yourself and it does what it needs to do, it also works with getting pregnant. So if we wanted to do it the ‘natural’ way then we could, we don’t need a man,” Sara explained and pulled it out of the bag so that Ava could get a closer look. 

“Okay-”

Ava didn’t even get the chance to say anything but Sara suddenly felt a little self-conscious for bringing this up. They hadn’t really done anything besides talk about the fact that they wanted to have another kid, and she didn’t want Ava to feel as though they had to do it this way just because she had bought the toy. “We don’t have to use it of course, but I just thought I should buy it just so we have the option.”

“No, I’m glad you did, I wanna do some research on it before we make any decisions, but I think it’s going to be a strong contender,” Ava had a small smile on her lips. “And I appreciate that you checked how it would affect the timeline before bringing it up.”

“What do you say we go and practice some more baby-making techniques?” Sara asked with a raised brow, and a smirk dancing on her lips. Ava bit her lower lip and nodded in response before allowing herself to be tugged upstairs to their bedroom. 

The following morning, Ava felt as though she had been at work for at least four hours, she quickly glanced over at the clock on the wall and realized she had only been there for two hours. The work in front of her was all finished, there appeared to be nothing wrong with the timeline at the moment. Her mind drifted to the conversation that she and Sara had, had the previous night, about the 2150 purchase. 

Her hands moved automatically over the keyboard and she found herself trying to figure out the name of the product so that she could do some research on it. That was one of the perks of being the Director of the Time Bureau she had access to so much information from both the past and the future. While she tended to stay away from futuristic information, this time was a little different. She and Sara were presented with the opportunity to use technology that wouldn’t be available to them for another 130 years. She would also usually shut something like this down the second the idea was proposed to her but she couldn’t seem to bring herself to do so in this case. There was nothing she wanted more than to be able to make a baby with her wife and it would be impossible to do so without using future technology. 

She spent just over an hour researching it and writing notes down every now and then, mostly about how to use it safely and other important things that they should know about it. She was just about to finish with her research, satisfied that she knew everything that she could possibly know about it until what looked to be a tutorial of some sort came up in the recommended section. The mouse hovered over the video before she decided to actually click on it. 

At first, the video seemed quite helpful and she took a few notes again, mainly on how to use it. However, the video took a sharp turn and Ava quickly realized that it definitely wasn’t a tutorial. The woman who was wearing the toy let out a moan when her partner ran her finger along it, she then dropped to her knees and Ava knew where it was heading. But, before she could do anything about it there was a knock on her office door followed by it opening and someone stepping inside. The second the door closed behind the person the woman on the screen let out another loud moan.

Ava’s face felt like it was on fire, she wanted the floor to just swallow her whole and her computer picked that exact moment to just stop responding to what she wanted it to do. She panicked and reached behind the computer screen and tugged the wires out and finally, the screen went blank and she could see her reflection in it. 

“I didn’t mean to interrupt whatever this was, do you want me to come back later,” Nate asked with an amused smile on his face. But, his comment only seemed to make Ava’s face redder, if that was even possible. 

“No, I wasn’t- I wasn’t watching that. I was doing research, for- the um-” Ava stumbled over her words and in the end decided to just stop talking because she wasn’t doing herself any favors. “So, what can I help you with?”

“I just needed you to sign these,” Nate said, he held up the papers in front of him before placing them on Ava’s desk. 

“Okay thank you, is that all?” She questioned when Nate made no move to leave her office. Instead, he sat down on one of the chairs opposite her desk. 

“You know I can take care of Riley for a couple of nights if you and Sara want to have some alone time,” Nate wriggled his eyebrows but there was also a sense of seriousness in his voice. “You know so you don’t have to watch porn in your office.”

“I wasn’t watching porn! I was researching something and the video looked like it was going to give me more information and then it was kind of the opposite.”

“Research? What could you possibly be researching that makes you accidentally watch porn?”

Ava froze. She and Sara had agreed to keep it between the two of them until they were pregnant. There was no way around it, she had shot herself in the foot. Until she realized Nate shouldn’t even be there, he should be on the Waverider. But instead, he was here in her office wearing his Bureau issued suit. 

“Wait what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be on the Waverider?” 

“It’s Wednesday Ava,” Nate said as if it should mean something to her. He registered the confused look on Ava’s face and elaborated, “I work here Monday to Wednesday remember?”

“Right, yeah of course,” Ava turned her head to look at the papers that needed signing. She quickly read through them and signed each paper in the designated spot before handing them back to Nate. 

“Thank you,” he said and Ava nodded her head before standing up from her chair and tried to figure out which wire went where in the computer screen. 

“Next time, watch the video on mute, or lock the door,” Nate teased on his way out of the office. She just looked at him with narrowed eyes and a scrunched up nose. 

The rest of the day passed by in the blink of an eye and she and Sara found themselves laid in bed facing one another. The room was dark and their fingers laced together as Sara ran her thumb over the back of Ava’s hand. 

“What’s this I hear about you watching porn in your office?” Sara questioned, and Ava didn’t have to see her to know that there was a huge smirk on her face. 

“I’m gonna kill Nate, I wasn’t watching porn! I was doing research and I thought it was an informational video turns out it definitely was not and then Nate walked into my office just as things started to get heated between the people in the video,” Ava all but whined and Sara just laughed. The thought of Ava hearing and seeing what was going on in the video and then being walked in on whilst watching said video was hilarious to Sara. “Sara it’s not funny, it was embarrassing and Nate has probably told the entire team.”

“Eh, just me, Z, Behrad and Charlie overheard too,” Sara said once she managed to finally stop laughing. 

“Oh my god,” Ava groaned and pulled the covers over her face. 

“Hey, it’s okay they will forget about it in like a day,” Sara’s voice turned soft and she pulled the covers away from Ava’s face and moved to straddle her waist. “But, while we’re on the topic, with all of this research of yours what’s the verdict on using that thing?” 

“I think we should maybe give it a go? I mean there’s no harm in trying,” Ava said, her hands were slowly running up and down Sara’s upper thighs. 

“Oh yeah?” Sara’s voice was low and Ava knew exactly what was going to happen next. 

The smaller woman leaned down and joined their lips together in a soft but needy kiss. Sara’s hands found their way under Ava’s shirt and lightly grazed her abs with her fingernails, eliciting a content moan from Ava. 

“Quiet babe, we don’t wanna wake Ry up,” Sara mumbled against Ava’s lips before she jumped up from the bed to make sure that the door was shut properly. 

After a few rounds, the two women were laid on top of the covers trying to catch their breaths. Ava had her head resting on Sara’s stomach and the latter had her arm slung over Ava’s chest drawing small patterns under her left breast with her finger. 

They were both glowing. Sure they had, had some great sex throughout their relationship. Mind-blowing even. But this was different, it was soft and gentle and slow and they were both on cloud nine. 

“I love you so much,” Ava mumbled into the lowly lit room. She turned her head to look at Sara with a goofy smile on her face. 

“I love you too,” Sara whispered before leaning over and kissing her wife softly.


	4. four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Ava go away for the weekend, and Riley spends the weekend with the Legends and Lita.

Ever since they had begun trying to have a baby together, Ava’s every waking thought was about whether it had worked or not. The week before her period was due she had none of the usual cramps she had before every period. That got her hopes up a little. 

Only for them to be completely shattered a week later when her period came. 

“Hey, it’s okay, we can try again,” Sara ran a reassuring hand up and down Ava’s upper arm. Truth be told, Sara was upset over it too, but she needed to be there for Ava to help her feel better about it. 

They tried again, only for it to not work again. But they tried again and again and again. And every time it didn’t work, Ava’s period always came and the test always came out negative. 

“What if I can’t even get pregnant?” Ava said. They sat on the couch watching the late October rainfall, out of the window. It was almost one in the morning, they had been busy catching up from the previous week because they hadn’t had the chance to speak with Sara being away on a mission. 

“We could go to Gideon or an actual clinic to get it checked out if that would help put your mind at ease?” Sara suggested and Ava agreed almost immediately. 

“We could go to Gideon tomorrow when I’m done with work, it will probably be quicker than trying to get an appointment at the doctor’s office,” Ava said and the following evening they found themselves on the Waverider. 

“Lita!” Riley squeaked when she noticed her ‘cousin’ sat at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal. “Mommy, can I go with Lita please?” Riley asked as she looked up at Ava with big round eyes, and her hands clasped together in front of her chest. 

“Do you mind sweetie?” Ava asked Lita. 

The girl shook her head, “not at all, you want something to eat?” 

“Yes please,” Riley said and Lita grabbed her bowl placing it in the sink before joining Riley at the food fabricator. 

Meanwhile, Sara and Ava had made their way to the med bay. Luckily, without running into anyone else. 

“Gideon lock the doors please,” Sara said and the doors slid shut seconds later. 

Ava sat down on the chair and slipped the bracelet onto her wrist. Gideon began her scans instantly, “Director Sharpe, I have detected no abnormalities, you are completely healthy.”

“Thanks, Gid,” Sara paused for a moment, “we need you to do some scans or whatever you need to do to find out if Ava can get pregnant.”

Gideon took some blood and then did a bunch of different tests and scans, on Ava and then did a few tests on Sara. The process felt like it lasted for hours but in reality, it probably took no longer than an hour and Ava was nervous. She and Sara had both gotten their hopes up about being able to have a baby together, and if she was infertile it would crush them. Sure there were so many other options for them to have another child, but since their ‘bachelorette’ weekend when she and Felicity spoke about her pregnancy, Ava wanted it to happen to her too. She wanted to give Riley the younger sibling that she wanted so badly. 

“I can confirm that you are in fact able to have children, Director Lance as are you Captain Lance. It doesn’t always happen straight away for people, sometimes it can take months maybe even years trying to conceive. I can however give you some hormone shots to increase your chances of getting pregnant,” Gideon said and a wave of relief rushed over both women. 

Sara moved closer to Ava’s side and ran her fingers through her long blonde locks. 

“Maybe we’re putting too much pressure on ourselves, we could give it a go without scheduling sex this time,” Sara let out a soft chuckle and Ava rolled her eyes. The schedule at the beginning felt helpful, it felt as though it would have increased their chances but clearly it didn’t. It ended up feeling like a chore and that is the last thing either of them ever thought sex would be described as. Maybe Sara was right, they needed to put less pressure on themselves and let everything happen organically. 

They waited for Gideon to finish fabricating the hormone shots and put them in a bag before walking through the hallways of the Waverider to find Riley. She and Lita had moved to the library. The taller girl was doing some school work with Riley kneeling on the chair beside her to get a better look at what Lita was doing. 

“What did that person do?” Riley pointed to something in Lita’s textbook. 

“He was the President,” Lita said and went into a little more detail about Abraham Lincoln, while Riley listened intently. Her hands were balled up into fists under her chin and her eyes didn’t leave Lita's textbook. She was interested in what the older girl was learning about and she wanted to learn it too.

“Has a girl ever been president?” 

“No, we were close to having a female president in the 2016 election but she didn’t win,” Lita explained and Riley’s face scrunched up at this new information. 

“Why didn’t she win?”

Lita tried her best to explain it in a way that Riley would understand but the small girl lost interest when it got a little too complicated. Instead, her attention turned to Zari who had suddenly appeared in the library. 

“Aunt Z, did you know that there has never been a girl president?” Riley asked with a slight frown on her face and Zari turned to look at her with a confused look. 

“We have, in 2024- oh wait, no forget I said that,” Zari said quickly when she realized that she had told them something about the future, she was still learning the ins and outs of time travel but she’s pretty sure that’s a big no-no. Then the panic set in, Sara and Ava didn’t want Riley to know about time travel until she was older. She hoped that Riley wouldn’t pick up on what she had just said. 

Luckily she didn’t. The small girl just giggled, “but that is so far away silly, that’s-” she paused for a second to count on her fingers, “that’s four whole years away, are you magic? Did uncle John take you to the future because he said he would take me but I had to wait until I’m at least ten and that’s so far away,” Riley groaned. 

Zari and Lita let out a sigh of relief when what she had said seemed to go over Riley’s head. 

“Wait! I have a question, how do you become president?” Riley asked excitedly as she ran over to her chair again and grabbed a pencil and some paper. “Giddy do you know how?” 

“I do indeed miss Lance,” Gideon said and began explaining everything in a way for Riley to understand easily. She had to stop and repeat herself every now and then when Riley either didn’t understand or she was talking too fast for her to write it down. 

Just as Gideon finished explaining, Sara and Ava walked into the library. 

“It’s good to see the library being used as an actual library instead of a magical parlour,” Sara said when she noticed Riley and Lita at the desk surrounded by paper and books with Zari sat opposite them. 

“Your daughter is writing a step by step guide on how to become president,” Zari explained when she realized that the girl was too wrapped up in writing things down to even notice her parents enter the room. Sara and Ava shared a proud smile before turning to look at their daughter, who was writing at a hundred miles a minute. Her tongue was sticking out slightly as she concentrated, that was until Gideon seemed to be talking a little too fast for her once again. 

“Giddy wait, I can’t write fast!” Riley exclaimed, clearly frustrated that she couldn’t keep up with what Gideon was saying.

“Miss Lance, I can create the steps for you and have them printed out,” Gideon said and Riley shook her head furiously. 

“No! I can do it, just go a little slower.”

Gideon carried on speaking until she had told Riley everything she could possibly need to know about becoming the president of the United States. After waiting for Riley to finish for around fifteen minutes Sara decided to go and see what the rest of the team was up to while Ava sat down beside Zari.

“Is everything okay with you?” Zari whispered, she looked very concerned for her best friend. But, Ava forgot why they were even on the Waverider for a moment and just looked at her with a confused expression. 

“Yeah? Is everything okay with you?”

“You were the one in the med bay,” Zari said and Ava’s eyes widened a little, she thought that she and Sara had managed to get in there undetected. Then she tried to think of an excuse as to why they were there. 

“It was just a check-up,” Ava said and Zari looked slightly suspicious but accepted the answer anyway. 

Before the dark-haired woman had the chance to question her further Sara reappeared in the library. 

“Ry, do you want to spend the weekend on the Waverider? You don’t have to if you don’t want to baby,” Sara said and Riley’s entire face lit up like a Christmas tree. She nodded her head furiously. 

“Yes! Are you staying here for the whole weekend too?” Riley asked Lita and her smile only seemed to get bigger when the older girl nodded her head. 

“Okay, let’s go grab some stuff for you,” Sara said, she opened a portal, and her and Riley stepped through into the small girl’s bedroom back home in Star City. 

Zari let out a soft gasp as though she had just remembered something, “wait if she’s staying for the weekend, how do you feel about her being in one of my videos? She asked me if she could be in one, months ago but I told her I had to double-check with you and Sara first.”

Ava thought back to the time where Riley was watching one of Zari’s vlogs and spotted herself in the background of one. Her excitement quickly turned into sadness when she realized that her face was blurred out. It took Sara and Ava hours to reassure a very upset Riley that it wasn’t because Zari didn’t like her, it was because she didn’t want to post her face to millions of people on the internet without permission. 

“Uh sure, I think that will make her very happy,” Ava said and Zari did a little excited clap and scrambled away to come up with some video ideas that she and Riley and maybe Lita could do. Leaving Ava sitting across from Lita. 

“I have a feeling I’m going to get dragged into whatever that is,” Lita said as she rolled her eyes playfully, Ava nodded her head and let out a soft chuckle. 

“Oh definitely, are you just staying on the Waverider this weekend, or do you and your dad have something planned?” 

“We were going to watch a soccer game but he has Rebecca Silver business, so I’m just spending some time here,” Lita said, and then she let out a soft gasp, “wait! Could I take Riley with me? I won’t take my eyes off of her the entire time or we could convince Uncle Nate to tag along.”

Ava paused for a moment, her mind running through all of the pros and cons. Riley would be over the moon with the opportunity to go and watch a soccer game, it didn’t matter what team it was she would be there. She also knew that Lita is very responsible and she would take care of Riley. But Ava also wanted her niece to enjoy the game too without having to check up on Riley the entire time. 

“I’ll talk to Sara about it but it’s okay with me, take Nate with you that way you can have fun the whole time and you don’t have to worry about being responsible for an excited six-year-old,” Ava said and as soon as she finished speaking Sara and Riley reappeared in the library. The small girl had the biggest smile on her face, her new favorite the Flash backpack on her shoulders, and her stuffed Simba held tightly under her arm. 

“Lita! I brought some games for us to play and we can watch movies and, and Mom said that I can stay up past my bedtime, it’s gonna be so much fun!” Riley exclaimed. She dumped her bag on the floor and moved to sit on the empty seat beside Ava. 

“Uh-uh, I don’t think so, pick your bag up from the middle of the floor. Let’s go and put your things away and then we need to talk to uncle Nate,” Ava said. Riley let out a groan as she turned on her heel and picked her bag up.

They headed to Riley’s room on the ship and Ava helped her unpack the backpack. She didn’t need to bring clothes or anything because she already had a bunch of clothes and other essentials on the Waverider. 

Riley had wandered off to the bathroom and Ava took that opportunity to talk to Sara about the soccer game. They both agreed that as long as Nate (or another legend) joined them it would be fine and they can all have a good time. 

It wasn’t that they didn’t trust Lita to take care of Riley. She absolutely could and has done before on several occasions. It’s just a soccer game in a stadium full of people is a little different from taking care of her in the safety of their house. They wanted both Lita and Riley to have a good time without Lita having to check on Riley the entire game. 

They spoke to Nate about it who agreed instantly. Which was a little suspicious, especially because he was the one who offered to take care of Riley for the weekend. Then Ava remembered his offer when he caught her in her office watching that video, and it all made sense as to why he was being so generous. 

“She’s gonna be so excited, speaking of, Gid where is she?” Sara questioned when she realized that Riley still wasn’t back from her trip to the bathroom. 

“If you are referring to Miss Lance, she is currently with Mr. Tarazi in the lab watching him play video games.”

Ava rolled her eyes and the two women set off in the direction of the lab. They found the small girl sneaking a cheese ball when Behrad turned to see who had walked through the door. 

“Hey guys,” Behrad said before quickly turning his attention back to the game on the screen. 

“Honey we’re leaving soon, but Lita wants to know if you would like to go to watch a soccer game with her and uncle Nate tomorrow?” Ava asked and Riley’s eyes went wide and a smile spread across her face. 

“Can I go please? I’ll be super good, and I will take my pocket-money to pay for snacks and I won’t leave Litas or Uncle Nate’s side the whole time, please,” Riley pleaded. Her hands clasped together as she did her best puppy dog face, not knowing that Sara and Ava had already agreed to let her go. 

“Of course you can go, sweetheart that’s why we’re telling you about it,” Ava chuckled and Riley’s face almost split in half with how big her smile was. “You don’t need to pay for your own snacks either, you don’t need to worry about that just have fun and make sure you don’t wander off anywhere,” Ava said and Riley nodded her head in response before launching herself at Ava. She wrapped her arms around her waist tightly and buried her face into her stomach. 

“We’re going home now baby, are you sure you got everything you wanted to bring with you?” Sara said when the small girl loosened her grip on Ava. 

“Mhmm, wait you’re leaving? I thought you were staying too,” her excited smile was gone and replaced by an upset pout. 

She loved staying on the Waverider surrounded by her aunts and uncles who let her get away with just about anything. But, she also hated being away from her moms for more than a night. It made her anxious and in turn, it made Ava more anxious than she already felt about being away from Riley. 

“No baby, mommy and I are going somewhere else for the weekend, but I promise you we will be back here on Sunday and you can tell us all about your weekend and how much fun you’ve had okay?” Sara said as she ran her fingers through Riley’s soft brunette locks. The small girl nodded her head and let go of Ava to give Sara a hug. 

“Bye Mama,” Riley mumbled. Sara quickly crouched down so that she could hug her daughter properly. Riley’s face buried in the crook of Sara’s neck and Sara’s hand came up to rest on the back of Riley’s head. 

“I love you Ry, have a good weekend I slipped uncle Nate a few extra dollars so you can have whatever you like at the soccer game,” Sara whispered and the small girl giggled in response. 

Ava said her goodbyes and Riley ran off to find Zari as the two women stepped through the portal into their living room. 

Later that night, Zari had Riley, Lita, Mick, Charlie, Nate, and Behrad all sat watching a movie with a face mask on. She tried to convince John to wear one too but he refused so she gave up because she knew that he wouldn’t budge on his response. 

“It feels funny,” Riley said as she scrunched her face up causing the partially dry face mask to crack slightly on her nose and around her mouth. 

“Ry no! Stop scrunching your face up, it won’t work if you do that,” Zari said and Riley tried her very best to keep her face still to avoid cracking it further, but she ended up bursting out into a fit of giggles. 

“What does it even do?” Riley asked with wide eyes as she tried to keep her face from moving too much. 

“It just helps your skin, and they’re fun.”

“I saw once in a movie that you can put mud on your face, but when I did it mommy said that I shouldn’t do that,” Riley said, referring to the one time she and Ava went to the park and some other kids were playing in the muddy puddles and she decided to swipe some onto her cheeks. Ava was not impressed, she wiped it off with a wipe from her bag, despite Riley’s protests. 

“Ew, yeah you have to have special mud for that, when you’re a little older we can go to a spa and we can even have a mud bath,” Zari said, Riley’s eyes went wide and her eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion. 

“But baths are supposed to clean you, how do you get clean in mud?”

“Well-”

“Shh! We’re trying to watch a movie!” Nate whisper-shouted. 

Zari and Riley shared a look before giggling softly. 

They watched the rest of the movie in relative silence, with Nate commenting on the movie every now and then. By the time it was over Riley was asleep with her head resting on Zari’s lap, and her feet resting on Charlie’s thighs. 

“Okay, who is putting her to bed?” Zari asked when everyone started standing up from the couch and heading to bed themselves. 

“Not me, I have to go um- finish my chores,” Behrad said before practically running out of the room.

Lita, Mick, and Nate had already left and headed to bed. Leaving Charlie with John and Zari. 

“Johnno, go on, it’ll give you a bit of practice,” Charlie teased before leaving the room too. Zari and John shared a look, both of their faces scrunched up at what was implied. 

“I’ll leave you to it, love,” John said with a slight smirk on his face before opening a portal to his house back in England. 

Zari let out a sigh and carried Riley to bed, with only a little bit of a struggle. 

The next morning, Riley woke up bright and early. Everyone else on the ship was still sleeping. Usually, at that point in the morning she would go and wake her moms up and they would begin their morning routines, but they weren’t there so she curled up in bed for a few more minutes and stared up at the metal ceiling. 

“Giddy, am I allowed to get out of bed, or do I have to sleep a little bit longer?” Riley whispered, referring to what Sara and Ava usually say when she wakes them up early on a weekend. 

“You can do whatever you like miss Lance, I can have breakfast ready for you along with your favorite tv show,” Gideon said quietly and Riley jumped out of bed and headed to the kitchen, holding her stuffed Simba securely under her arm. She slowly made her way to the kitchen area and just as Gideon had promised her breakfast was there waiting for her, with her favorite show playing on the screen in front of her. 

“Thank you giddy,” Riley said happily as she sat down at the table to eat her cereal. After she finished eating she put her bowl in the sink and tucked Simba back under her arm before heading back to her room to get dressed. 

Ava had laid her Star City Women’s soccer team shirt out on the back of the chair in her room, along with matching shorts and socks. She changed and went about the rest of her usual morning routine without a hitch, only hitting a slight bump when it came to her hair. Usually when she went to watch hockey or soccer games with Quentin either Sara or Ava would braid her hair for her so that it wouldn’t get in her face. However, they weren’t there to do it for her this time and it was proving to be very difficult. 

“Giddy, is Aunt Z awake yet?”

“Miss Tarazi is awake and in her room,” Gideon said and Riley nodded her head before thanking the AI and rushing off towards Zari’s quarters. 

She knocked on the door and whispered, “Aunt Z, are you awake? Giddy said that you are and I need help with my hair please.” The door slid open and revealed Zari sitting in the middle of her bed with her laptop sitting on her thighs. 

“Come here Ry Ry, how do you want it?” Zari said she was excited to do her hair. It wasn’t often that she got to do anyone’s hair, even from a young age when most of the girls her age were having sleepovers and braiding each other’s hair while they talked about boys, it was something so simple that she never got to experience and she wanted to so badly. Along with a lot of other things that she had missed out on, in her childhood. 

“Can you braid it please, mommy does it in two but mama does just one so you can choose,” Riley said, Zari patted the empty spot on the bed in front of her and Riley sat down with her legs crossed as Zari got to work on her hair. 

“So, are you excited for today?” She asked and Riley nodded her head before remembering she was getting her hair braided and she had to keep still. 

“I’m super excited, Grandpa has been busy with work so we can’t go to watch any hockey or soccer, I wish he could come too but it will be fun with Lita and Uncle Nate.”

“I’m sure you will have so much fun! Hey, you know, your moms agreed for you to be in one of my videos, so if you want we could film that when you’re back from the game,” Zari suggested and Riley’s head whipped around to look at Zari, her eyes were wide with excitement and she had the biggest smile on her face. 

“Yes! What are we going to do? I have a bunch of ideas I saw somebody make slime once that looked fun, or we could talk about Lions while we are dressed like lions,” Riley suggested excitedly. 

Zari bit back her laugh, she didn’t want to seem as though she was laughing at her ideas but they were both so random; and very different from what her channel is. 

“They’re both good ideas, but I already know what we’re going to do, you’re gonna love it! Maybe we can do that another time though,” Zari suggested and Riley nodded her head slightly, before mumbling an apology for moving her head again. 

Zari finished with the braids and Riley thanked her before running off to find Lita and Nate to ask them if it was time to go yet. She found Lita in the kitchen and Nate walking back from the bathroom. 

They waited another hour or so before they finally left for the game. When they arrived at the stadium it was full of people, who all looked the same in their team’s shirt. Lita gripped onto Riley’s hand a little tighter as they made their way through the large crowd and stopped at the food truck just outside of the doors. They got their food and made it inside to their seats, without spilling any food. 

The game was mostly uneventful, the score was 0-0 until the 86th minute when their team scored. Their half of the stadium jumped to their feet and erupted into cheers and claps. Riley looked up at Nate with a frown when the row in front of them stood up and she could no longer see what was happening on the pitch. Nate lifted her up so that she could see and her favorite player was right there in front of them a few rows away. She couldn’t contain her excitement. 

When the game finally finished they followed the crowd out of the bleachers and out towards where the bathrooms were. Nate left Lita and Riley standing to the side while he used the bathroom. 

Riley stood beside Lita talking animatedly about the game as though she hadn’t just sat and watched it with her. Riley stopped talking for a second giving Lita time to respond, the tall girl opened her mouth to speak as she looked down at Riley, who was no longer there. She looked around and saw a man grabbing onto her wrist and attempting to pull her through the crowd. 

Lita stormed up to the man and grabbed onto Riley’s arm and yanked her away from him. There was no way Lita would ever want to hurt Riley but at that moment she wasn’t thinking about that she just wanted to get her away from the man. Once Riley was secured behind her, one hand still gripping onto her upper arm, Lita kicked the back of the man's knees causing him to lose his balance and then she pepper-sprayed him in the face. Making him collapse on the floor, groaning in pain. 

She lifted Riley up into her arms, and the small girl was silent, her eyes were wide with fear and her whole body was stiff. Nate emerged from the bathroom to find a man on the floor in front of Lita and Riley clinging onto her for dear life. 

“What happened?” Nate asked worriedly. 

“This asshole just tried to take her,” Lita said, and Riley buried her face into her cousin's neck to try and ignore everything going on around her. 

Everything was too loud and too bright. Her wrist was burning from where he grabbed onto her. She squeezed her eyes shut but quickly opened them again when all she could see was her uncle coming towards her with an empty bottle in his hand. 

They let security handle him, they gave them a statement and they took the man away into a room in the back until the police arrived. They had to give their statement to the police too, and the entire time Riley was clinging to Lita the whole time, her face didn’t move from where it was buried in the crook of Lita's neck. 

When they made it back to the Waverider Zari had the camera all set up ready for her, Riley, and Lita to film the video. She ran over to them excitedly only to come to a stop when she noticed the sad expression on Lita’s face as she shook her head from side to side. Zari’s smile dropped from her face and it was replaced by a concerned look. 

She had never seen Riley as anything other than a carefree bubbly little girl. Full of wonder and curiosity about the world. But, she hadn’t even lifted her head from Lita’s neck and her small knuckles were white from how tight she was gripping onto the back of Lita’s shirt. 

“What happened? Did the team lose or something?” Zari asked, and Nate shook his head. Lita nodded towards the hallway, silently telling the two that she was taking Riley to her bedroom. He nodded his head in response and moved closer to Zari to tell her what had happened. 

Lita and Riley made it to Riley’s room and the latter finally let go of her death grip on Lita’s shirt and curled up under the covers on her bed.

“Do you want me to get anything for you? Gideon could-” Lita stopped speaking the second Riley’s soft sobs began and gradually got harder until her whole body was shaking. Lita reached out to pull Riley into a hug but the small girl flinched away before scrambling out of the bed, she ran to the corner of the room and hid in the small space between the wall and the side of the dresser. 

“Please don’t hurt me, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to get scared, please, no,” Riley cried, her knees were pulled up to her chest and her face buried into her knees. 

“Gideon can you get Nate and Zari please, I don’t know what to do,” her voice sounded panicked. She had no idea how to help the girl, she crouched down in front of her, but also kept her distance so that she didn’t startle her. 

“Riley, it’s me, I’m not going to hurt you, you’re safe here I promise,” Lita said softly but Riley didn’t budge and her sobs didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, all she wanted to do was wrap her up in a tight hug, but that would definitely just make the situation worse. Then Nate and Zari rushed into the room and crouched down beside the small girl. 

“Hey, sweetie it’s just us, you’re safe, do you want Simba?” Zari asked and it wasn’t until the last part did she lift her head from her knees. Her eyes were bloodshot from all of the crying and her cheeks were bright red with tear marks covering them. She didn’t say anything in response to the question instead she just nodded her head. 

Nate grabbed the stuffed animal from the bed and handed it to Riley, while still keeping his distance from her so that she wasn’t startled. She took the stuffed lion from him and held it tightly against her chest. 

“I want my mommies please, I’m scared,” Riley managed to choke out before sobs wracked through her body once more. 

Zari stood up and dragged Nate out into the hallway with her, “what do we do? Do we call them or should we try and figure this out ourselves?”

“We should probably call them, they’re the only ones who are going to help her feel better and if we don’t call them and wait until they get back tomorrow, I think they will kill us,” Nate said and Zari nodded her head, she unlocked her phone and dialed Ava’s number. 

She didn’t answer at first, so she called Sara and she answered on the second ring. She explained everything to them and she heard them scrambling about before Sara said that they were on their way and the line went dead.


	5. five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Sara leave the Riley on the Waverider and have a nice weekend away in a cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I started writing this story I aimed to have a new chapter out every Sunday, and they're mostly all written but I've been so busy with university lately that it's been difficult to stick to that schedule. So I have decided to change it to every other week, that way it gives me time to do my work but also work on my Avalance President AU (which should be posted sometime in December) so if that's something you'd be interested in reading, keep an eye out!!
> 
> Anyway, on with the chapter, it contains smut! I hope you enjoy :))

After leaving the Waverider, Sara and Ava stepped into their living room. Ava made a move to do something in the kitchen, but she was stopped when Sara grabbed her hand and pulled her upstairs towards their bedroom. The taller woman expected it to go in a completely different direction than it did. 

“Pack your bag babe, we are going away for the weekend,” Sara said with a smile on her face and pulled the duffel bag from the top shelf of her closet. She dropped it onto the bed and began shoving stuff into it, Ava lightly shoved her out of the way and took the clothes out. She folded them neatly before placing them back into the bag. 

“Where are we going? What kind of clothes do I need to take?” Ava questioned as she grabbed her own bag. Sara was busy rifling through their drawers before tossing a box into the bag. Ava’s eyes went a little wide when she saw the box, she knew exactly what was in it and it made her cheeks flush a slight pink color. 

“Preferably you won’t need clothes, but take something warm, oh, and a swimsuit; there’s a hot tub,” Sara said before leaving the room with her bag in hand. 

It didn’t take long for Ava to pack her own bag, she gave it one last check to make sure she had everything that she needed including her keys and wallet that were carefully placed in a side pocket inside of the bag. She found Sara sitting on the couch with her bag by her feet, she was looking at something on her phone. 

“Ready?” Sara questioned when she looked up to see Ava standing there with her bag in her right hand and her phone in her left. The taller woman nodded her head and Sara jumped up from the couch and turned her phone towards Ava. “They made spaghetti for dinner, Z said that she got it everywhere including on the new shirt that they had Gideon fabricate for her.”

Ava smiled fondly at the picture of her daughter, she had spaghetti sauce all around her mouth, a tiny bit on her nose, and some on the light blue t-shirt that she was wearing. A bright toothy smile was on her face which made her eyes scrunch up a little. She looked incredibly happy and that caused a wave of relief to rush over Ava. Even though she and Sara had let Riley stay on the Waverider without them plenty of times before, it didn’t stop Ava from worrying about her; because the Legends can get themselves in all kinds of trouble without even stepping off of the ship. 

But before Ava could think about it for much longer she was being dragged out of the house by her wife. She tossed their bags on the back seat and grabbed the car keys from Ava’s hand, she jumped into the driver's seat leaving Ava with no choice but to sit in the passenger seat. 

“Let’s go,” Sara said with an excited smile on her face as she reversed the car out of the driveway. Her hand made its way over to rest on Ava’s upper thigh, her finger automatically drawing small patterns on the inside of her thigh. 

Ava relaxed into the leather seat and watched the city pass by them. She still had no idea where exactly they were going, until she began to notice signs for the small log cabin village that was located in the woods on the outskirts of the city. Sara had talked about wanting to go there multiple times but it never happened because something always came up. 

It didn’t take them very long to get there at all, there was barely any traffic which was surprising for Star City at 8:30 pm on a Friday. Usually, the whole city was gridlocked with people trying to go out and have fun to kick off the weekend. 

When they arrived at the cabin, it was in darkness. The only light was the headlights on the car. It felt like something straight out of a horror movie. However, when they grabbed their things from the car and headed inside it was beautiful, there was a log burner in the corner of the room with a TV hanging on the wall and a couple of couches facing it. 

It was very cozy and now that the lights were on and they were taking a look around, it didn’t feel anything like a horror movie, instead, it felt like one of those cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies where the main characters get snowed in and eventually fall in love. Except she was already completely and utterly in love with the main character in her story.

They dropped their bags in the bedroom and made their way out onto the back porch where the hot tub was. It overlooked the giant lake that had various water activities and boats for people to use. However, their focus wasn’t on the lake. It was on the hot tub in front of them. 

“What do you say we crack open a bottle of wine and get in there?” Sara suggested and Ava nodded her head almost immediately. 

That's how they found themselves slightly tipsy sitting opposite one another in the hot tub, the jets gently massaging their backs. 

“God I needed this,” Ava moaned as the jets helped massage the tension from her lower back. Sara looked at her wife with a raised eyebrow at the noise that she just made. She moved to sit beside Ava and her hands quickly found Ava’s upper back. She began massaging her shoulders and more moans tumbled from Ava’s lips. 

Sara couldn’t take it any longer, the noises that she was producing from her wife without even really doing anything, was turning her on big time. She had a whole evening planned. They were going to have a candlelit dinner by the fireplace, followed by chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert, which would then be followed by something a little more exciting. 

However, the plan was thrown out of the window the second Sara moved to straddle Ava’s thighs. The taller blondes' hands wasted no time in making their way to rest on Sara’s upper thighs. Their lips joined together in a soft kiss, that very quickly got heated as Sara’s tongue traced Ava’s lower lip. 

After a few moments of them making out, Sara pulled away and turned her attention to Ava’s neck. The latter tilted her head back immediately to give Sara enough room to move. She very quickly found Ava’s sweet spot and gently bit down on it before sucking on it, both actions earning soft moans from Ava. 

She moved down her neck and nipped along her collar bone, before going a little lower. She pressed a soft kiss to the swell of Ava’s breasts, she looked up at her, silently asking for permission to remove the top half of Ava’s bikini. The taller woman nodded her head and Sara reached around her back and expertly untied the strings with one hand. The bikini top fell away from Ava’s body and was left to float around the water. Neither of them cared though, Sara was much more focused on Ava’s now exposed breasts, and no matter how many times she had seen them they still made her mouth water at the sight of them.

“Do you want to move this inside?” Ava asked softly before Sara could go any further. She nodded her head and they hopped out of the tub and hurried inside. They quickly stripped out of their wet bikinis and dried off before climbing onto the bed to resume what they were doing. 

Sara didn’t waste any time, she gently nipped at the skin around Ava’s nipples before wrapping her mouth around one of them. As soon as she did that a soft moan tumbled from Ava’s mouth and her hands moved to lightly grip Sara’s upper back when she swirled her tongue around the hardened peak. Once Sara was satisfied she moved her attention away from Ava’s nipples and began to make her way down Ava’s body, gently sucking on the soft skin of her stomach leaving dark marks in its path. 

She was getting closer and closer to where Ava needed her the most and the taller woman was getting slightly impatient. She lifted her hands from where they were still gripping onto Sara’s upper back and moved one hand to the back of Sara’s head, her fingers tangled between the soft blonde locks in an attempt to push her head a little further down. But, when she did that Sara stopped and looked up at her with a mischievous glint in her eyes. 

She moved her head a little further down Ava’s body and the latter readied herself for what she thought was going to happen. However, Sara’s mouth passed right over the spot where Ava wanted her and instead she found herself biting and sucking on the inside of Ava’s thighs. After leaving an array of purple marks on each thigh she nudged Ava’s legs open a little wider and ran her tongue through Ava’s dripping folds. She did that a few more times before switching her attention to her clit, her teeth grazed over it causing Ava’s head to sink back into the pillows beneath her head. She let out a loud moan when Sara began to suck on it.

“More… Sara, I need more please,” Ava panted and Sara knew exactly what she needed, she contemplated whether she wanted to give in and give her exactly what she wanted or whether she should drag it out a little longer and tease her. When she looked up and saw Ava with her eyes closed and her bottom lip clamped between her teeth she decided that they had enough time to tease each other later on. She sunk two fingers into Ava’s wet heat and picked up a steady pace; one that Ava clearly liked, if her moans were anything to go by. 

The combination of Sara’s fingers and her mouth had Ava falling over the edge pretty quickly. Her body tensed up before she let out a loud, guttural moan and then her body went limp, Sara’s fingers were still moving slowly inside of her until she was sure that Ava’s orgasm was over. She pulled out and brought her fingers up to her mouth, sucking them clean of Ava’s juices. She moved swiftly to straddle Ava’s stomach, her hands moved to cup Ava’s cheeks before she peppered soft kisses all over her face, earning a lazy smile from the taller woman. 

“I brought the strap, do you want to give it another go?” Sara asked softly, referring to the toy that she bought from the mission involving Rose Cleveland. Ava nodded her head almost immediately, they had used the hormone shot that Gideon had fabricated for them and even though she knew they wouldn’t get pregnant after using it one time, it was worth a shot. Besides, they both liked the toy, so why not?

An excited smile worked its way onto Sara’s face as she hopped off the bed and began rifling through her bag to find it. When she finally found it she wasted no time attaching it to herself, her own arousal mixed with the sight of Ava completely naked laid out on the bed brought it to life. It was hard almost immediately. 

She hopped back onto the bed and resumed her position of straddling Ava’s stomach. Ava’s hands moved to rest on Sara’s butt and gently squeezed it. Sara moved to lay down on Ava and joined their lips together. Ava slipped her tongue into Sara’s mouth, eliciting a soft moan from the smaller woman. She began to grind her hips against Ava’s stomach, Ava’s hands were still on her butt, she helped the smaller woman grind against her. 

Ava used this small distraction to flip them over so that Sara was on her back and Ava was the one straddling her hips. The toy pressed against her clit causing her to let out a small moan at the sensation. She gave herself a moment to relish in the feeling of Sara pressed against her before she moved off of Sara and knelt down on the bed beside her wife. She mimicked Sara’s previous actions of biting and sucking on the smooth skin of her stomach, she left multiple dark purple marks on Sara’s abs only moving when she decided that if she made any more marks on her it would be a little too much. She leaned back a little to admire her work, and Sara took advantage of her moment of distraction to gently push Ava back onto the bed, leaving her on top once again. 

“I can’t wait any longer, I need you, Aves,” Sara said looking down at Ava waiting for confirmation and when the taller woman nodded her head she took the toy in her hand and ran the tip of it through Ava’s folds and purposefully bumped her clit with it. 

She gathered the wetness from Ava onto the tip before lining it up with her entrance and with one swift thrust she was all the way in. 

“Fuck, you feel so good,” Sara grunted as she began to pick up a slow and steady rhythm, thrusting in and out at an agonizingly slow pace. Ava tried to move her hips in time with Sara’s thrusts to try and get some leverage, but Sara put her hands on her hips and pressed them down onto the bed, making it so she couldn’t move. She carried on with the slow thrusts for a few moments, just enjoying the feeling of Ava wrapped around ‘her’. 

The toy was incredibly lifelike, it allowed Sara to fully feel Ava. Every pulse and thrust almost sent her over the edge, but she managed to control herself and sped up with her thrusting. She moved down to rest on her forearms that were placed at either side of Ava’s head causing their breasts to rub against one another with every thrust Sara did. 

Sara dropped her forehead to rest against Ava’s, causing the latter to open her eyes and look up at her wife. Their eyes locked onto one another and it made what they were doing feel so much more intense. 

“I love you so much,” Sara mumbled against Ava’s lips before capturing them in a soft kiss. The kiss was messy and uncoordinated, they were too focused on the build-up of their orgasms. 

“I love you more,” Ava panted. 

Sara’s thrusts got quite erratic as she felt her climax building up and threatening to bubble over. She wanted Ava to come first, and she knew the other woman was close so she brought a hand between their bodies and rubbed her clit. She picked up her pace, both with the circles on her clit and with her thrusts; and soon enough Ava’s head was thrown back into the pillow as she let out loud moans. 

Sara carried on her movements, both to help Ava through her orgasm but also to encourage her own release. Ava’s walls were pulsing around ‘Sara’ and that was enough to throw her over the edge. Her orgasm hit her like a ton of bricks, her juices flowed through the toy and into Ava. Both women collapsed into a heap of arms and legs, Sara was still buried deep inside of Ava and the room was just filled with the sound of their heavy breathing. 

Once Sara composed herself, she pulled out and rolled onto her back beside Ava, “that was incredible,” she said with a slight smirk on her face. Ava just nodded her head, as she turned on her side to cuddle into Sara’s side. The smaller woman wrapped her arms around her wife’s shoulders pulling her impossibly closer, she pressed a kiss on Ava’s forehead when she let her head rest on Sara’s bare chest. 

They stayed like that for a short while, just enjoying the afterglow. However, it didn’t take them long to get worked up again. They went a few more rounds, with and without the toy. 

The next morning they woke up to the golden glow of the sun beaming through the blinds that they had forgotten to close the night before. Ava rolled over with a groan, she buried her face into the pillow to try and avoid the bright light and ended up just falling back to sleep. 

When she woke up again there was a steaming cup of coffee waiting on the bedside table for her. She sat up on the bed with her back resting against the headboard and took the mug into her hands. That’s when she realized Sara wasn’t in the bed, the cabin was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. She was about to get out of bed and search for her wife when she looked out of the glass door, that led from the bedroom to a small balcony area that overlooked the lake, and saw Sara sitting on a chair with her feet propped up on the railing that wrapped around the balcony. 

Ava grabbed the robe that was slung on the floor from the previous night and joined Sara out on the balcony. 

“Morning,” Ava’s voice was slightly raspy, she wrapped her arms around Sara’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head. Sara tilted her head back slightly so Ava could press a chaste kiss to her lips. 

“Morning babe,” Sara said with a lopsided grin on her face. Ava walked round to sit beside her, the cup of coffee still in her hands as she shivered slightly. The sun was so bright and looked so warm she forgot that it was November, and was regretting only putting the robe on. “Did you sleep okay?”

Ava rolled her eyes, Sara knew full well that she had barely slept. The two of them were awake until the early hours of the morning, and they were doing a little more than just talking. “The two hours that I got were great, how did you sleep?”

“I slept okay until the damn birds decided to make as much noise as possible,” Sara said before taking a large sip of her coffee. “What do you wanna do today?” 

Ava shrugged her shoulders, there wasn’t exactly a whole lot that they could do without driving back into the city. Which kind of defeated the idea of the weekend away from the city. “We could go for a walk?” She suggested and Sara nodded her head in agreement. 

Later that afternoon they found themselves in the middle of the forest walking up a steep incline. Ava was walking in front of Sara, along the very narrow path that was slightly slippy from the heavy rainfall the night before. After following the pathway for a short while they finally reached the top of the hill that overlooked the entire city. There were a few picnic benches dotted around the area, luckily for them, nobody else was around. They sat down on one of the benches and just looked out at the city. As expected for a Saturday afternoon on a game day, most of the roads were just stood still, car horns were blaring out from various parts of the city followed by sirens and so many other noises. Despite that, it was still very peaceful just sitting down and being able to see the city from an angle that Ava had never seen it from before. 

“This would look amazing in the dark,” Ava said, not taking her eyes off of the array of buildings in front of them. 

“It does, I used to come up here when I was younger, I would ride my bike all the way up here and just watch the city move for hours until my dad finally had enough of waiting for me to come home and drove over here,” Sara said with a soft smile as she remembered her early teenage years, “I would make little stories up in my head about the people driving down there and that tells you just how many friends I had in high school.”

Ava looked at her wife with a sad smile, “it’s cute, what do you think that guys life is like?” Ava pointed to a silver Porsche. 

“I think, he just went through a divorce, his ex-wife always told him that they couldn’t get the car because where would the kids’ car seats go? But, he impulse bought it anyway and now he can’t take the kids anywhere that isn’t within walking distance,” Sara said, Ava let out a soft chuckle beside her. 

They sat there on that bench making up scenarios for a bunch of cars on the road below them until the cold November air got a little too much for them and they decided to make their way back to the cabin. Or tried to make their way back there at least. 

“No we definitely came from that way,” Ava said pointing to the trail that broke off to the right.

“No, it was that one,” Sara pointed to the one straight ahead of them, Ava shook her head and pulled out her phone. “There’s no signal here, I already checked.” The taller woman let out a sigh and shoved the phone back into her pocket. 

“We have to make a decision, it’s going to be dark soon, we can’t just stand here all night trying to figure it out.”

“Fine, we’ll go your way, but when we figure out it’s the wrong way you owe me.”

“Okay and when we find out that it’s the right way, you owe me another massage,” Ava said and Sara just raised an eyebrow as she walked past her. 

“Let’s hope you’re right then,” she said with a smirk. 

Luckily for Ava, it was the right way and they managed to get back to the cabin just before it got dark. They left their muddy shoes by the door and made their way up to the bedroom to change into comfier clothes. 

“Leave your shirt off,” Sara said just as Ava was about to slip the sweatshirt over her head, the taller woman paused and a smirk formed on her lips. She neatly folded the sweatshirt and placed it on the chair in the corner of the room. “I don’t think you will be needing this either,” Sara reached around Ava’s back and unhooked her bra. Ava bit down on her bottom lip to try and stop the smile but it didn’t work, her bra hit the floor and she was being led towards the bed. 

Sara laid her down on her stomach with her head resting on the multiple pillows, she waited patiently for Sara to come back. When she finally reappeared in the room, suddenly the lights were dimmed and there were a few candles dotted around the room. 

“You ready?” Sara asked and Ava eagerly nodded her head. The smaller blonde joined her on the bed and climbed over Ava so that she was straddling her butt. Her hands got to work and within seconds moans were tumbling from Ava’s lips. Her fingers were gently working out the knots that had formed in Ava’s upper back. 

“Mmm, I love your hands,” Ava moaned into the pillow. Their peace was suddenly interrupted by the loud ringing of Ava’s phone. She made a move to answer it but Sara gently nudged her back into the bed. 

“Leave it, I’m sure it’s not important,” Sara said as her hands got back to work. The phone stopped ringing and the room was enveloped in a peaceful silence once more. Until Sara’s phone rang that time. 

“Answer it, it’s probably a little important if they’re trying to get a hold of both of us,” Ava mumbled, Sara nodded her head and leaned over to grab her phone off of the bedside table. 

“It’s Z,” Sara held her phone up to show Ava before she slid the green button across the screen to answer the call. 

“Hey Z, what’s up? Is Riley behaving?” Sara asked playfully, knowing full well that Riley wouldn’t be causing too much trouble for the legends. It would more than likely be the other way around. However, her playful demeanor vanished, and she almost dropped her phone when the woman on the other end of the call explained what was going on. “Okay, we’re on our way, tell her we will be there in a minute.”

She ended the call and jumped up from the bed. She grabbed Ava’s sweatshirt from the chair and threw it at her, “babe get dressed we need to go now,” Sara said, rushing around the room trying to find the time courier that Ava was wearing the night before. 

“What happened? Is Riley okay?” Ava asked, her voice shaking slightly with anxiety. 

“Z said that some man tried to take her while they were at the game and she thought that he was her uncle, she won’t let anyone touch her and she’s asking for us,” Sara said and Ava froze. 

The thought of someone trying to take their baby caused a wave of emotions to rush through her. She was angry, angry at the fact that someone would put Riley through that. She was angry that she wasn’t there for their daughter, she was scared because what would have happened if he had succeeded? She shook that thought from her head because he hadn’t succeeded and she was safe on the Waverider, surrounded by people who love her so much and would do absolutely anything to protect her. She was also very worried. Riley had made so much progress and had worked hard to deal with the way she was treated by her uncle and the fact that a stranger could potentially regress all of that gave her a great deal of anxiety. Riley had already gone through more hardships than anybody should have in a lifetime and she was only six. 

Her body then began to move automatically, her sweatshirt was over her head and her shoes were on her feet and before they knew it they were stepping through the portal onto the Waverider. The two women ran towards Riley’s room and found the small girl sitting in the corner of the room sobbing into her stuffed lion. 

“Riley?” Sara said softly as the two of them sat down in front of her. She slowly lifted her head from the stuffed animal and she crawled into Sara’s lap. The captain wrapped her arms tightly around the small girl and swayed slightly, from side to side. “You’re okay baby, I promise nobody is going to hurt you ever, we’re here, we’ve got you.”

Ava moved to sit beside the pair, she ran her hand up and down Riley's back in an attempt to comfort her; because whenever she has a nightmare and Sara isn’t there to help her through it, Ava lays down beside her and just rubs her back until she eventually falls back to sleep. 

It seemed to work in this situation too, her sobs began to subside and she just clung onto Sara’s shirt like her life depended on it. Ava’s hand came to a stop and just rested on the small of Riley’s back. The small girl let out a displeased groan. Ava took the hint and continued rubbing her back. 

“I’m gonna go and speak to Nate,” Sara whispered, she lifted Riley up slightly and Ava took her into her lap. 

“No! Don’t go!” Riley cried out when she noticed that Sara was standing up. 

“I’ll be right back sweetheart, I’m just going to find Uncle Nate, and then when I get back we can go home and get you settled,” Sara said and Riley wasn’t too pleased that Sara was leaving them even if it was probably only for ten minutes. She nodded her head anyway and cuddled into Ava’s warm embrace. 

Sara left the room and found Lita pacing up and down outside of Riley’s bedroom door. 

“Hey sweetie, are you okay?” Sara asked the concern was clear in her voice when her niece didn’t even notice her presence as she carried on pacing. 

“I’m so sorry, I should have been paying more attention to the people around us, I should have never even let him get near her-” Lita said and Sara put her hands on Lita’s shoulders to get her to stop pacing. 

“Lita, look at me. This wasn’t your fault, there was no way that you could have known what he was going to do, it’s the last place you would expect anything like that to happen with that many people around, and in broad daylight,” Sara paused for a second before speaking again, “but please don’t blame yourself for this, it absolutely wasn’t your fault and you saved her, you’re the reason she is back here safe and sound with us if anything we should be thanking you,” Sara said and Lita hesitated for a moment before wrapping her arms around Sara. She was slightly taller than the captain but they made it work and Sara wrapped her arms tightly around her niece. 

“Thank you,” Lita whispered. 

“Anytime, now get in there I’m sure it will cheer her up having you there.”

And with that Lita went into the bedroom to join Ava and Riley while Sara went to find Nate. He explained exactly what happened and had to physically stop Sara from portalling to right after Lita knocked him to the ground. But she knew better than to change things that didn’t exactly stand out on the timeline. 

Then she portalled back to the cabin to grab their things that they had left there in a hurry to get to the Waverider. When she had everything she portalled back to the Waverider and was met with Ava laid out on Riley’s bed, the small girl was laid on top of Ava sleeping soundly. Her fist holding tightly onto Ava’s shirt and her other hand resting on Ava’s chin. The taller woman had both hands on her daughter’s back and her head slumped to the side slightly. 

“Babe, come on let’s get her home,” Sara whispered as she gently shook her wife’s shoulder. The one that didn’t have Riley’s head resting on. 

“Huh? What time is it? How long was I sleeping for?” Ava mumbled her eyes barely opened as she looked at Sara. 

“I don’t know how long you were asleep for but it’s almost eight, I think it will be better for her to be at home when she wakes up,” Sara said and Ava nodded her head. She managed to stand up with Riley still in her arms and without her disturbing her sleep. Sara opened a portal right into Riley’s bedroom, Ava carefully placed her under the covers and tucked her in. The two of them stood watching over her for a moment, neither woman wanted to leave her alone but they couldn’t stand there all night so Sara made a move to leave the room, she took Ava’s hand in her own and pulled her out of the room. 

The second the door was shut, Ava broke down into tears. Sara just pulled her into a hug, she didn’t need Ava to explain why she was crying, she knew exactly why she was. She felt the exact same way, but she managed to keep the tears at bay because she felt as though she needed to be strong for both of them. 

They had come dangerously close to losing their daughter and that was something neither of them was expecting to happen. They expected Riley to come home on a sugar rush, too excited about her weekend with the Legends that she couldn’t stop talking about it. But, instead, their weekend was cut short and they were met with the complete opposite. They were met with a girl who looked so scared and small, she looked a lot like the girl she was when they first met her and that scared the two of them. She had already overcome so much more than she ever should have in a lifetime and they were more than a little worried about how bad it was going to affect her. 

However, they didn’t have a chance to talk it through with one another because there was a knock at the door. 

“I’ve got it, go and change and I’ll make some tea,” Sara said, she nudged Ava in the direction of their bedroom while she ran downstairs to see who was at the door. The door swung open to reveal a heavily pregnant Laurel, Tommy, and Quentin. She didn’t even have the chance to greet them because Laurel's arms were around her, pulling her into a tight hug. Well as tight as she could with her stomach getting in the way slightly. Sara melted into her sister's arms and wrapped her arms around Laurel's shoulders. 

“How are you guys holding up? How’s Ry?” Tommy asked when the three of them stepped into the house. Quentin gave Sara a tight hug and she relaxed in his warm embrace. Once they pulled away the three of them went into the living room to sit down. 

“She’s not good, Ava’s not good either but we’ll figure it out, she’s a tough kid she’ll get through this I know she will,” Sara was picking at her fingernails, doing her very best to avoid eye contact with any of them, because she knew if she looked at them her walls would crumble and she would break down. And that is the last thing that she wanted to do. 

“She is a tough kid, but what about you? How are you?” Laurel asked and Sara still refused to look up from her hands. She just shrugged her shoulders, took a deep breath, and forced a smile onto her lips. 

“I’m fine, she’s safe upstairs in bed, so I’m good,” Sara lied. She was anything but fine. She cleared her throat before speaking again, “I need a drink, does anybody want anything?” 

The three of them shook their heads and Sara excused herself to the kitchen. She grabbed her favorite bottle of whiskey from the cupboard that had a child lock on and poured some into a glass. She drank it in two large sips before pouring another. 

“It will get easier,” Sara jumped at the sound of her dad's voice. Her mind was preoccupied with the various thoughts of what would have happened if the guy had succeeded with taking Riley. “I know she’s here and she’s safe, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to feel scared about almost losing her, you don’t have to be strong all the time Sara, it’s okay to lean on the people around you.”

“I’m sorry dad.”

“Sorry? What are you sorry for?”

“For putting you through feeling this way, I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it was when I went on the gambit,” Sara had tears in her eyes that were threatening to spill over. She tried her best to stop them but she failed and that’s when the dam broke. Her whole body shook as tears streamed down her cheeks. Quentin pulled her into a tight hug and she clung to him, his hand was resting on the back of her head and the other on her upper back. 

After a few moments, she managed to compose herself and the tears slowed down. She pulled away from her dad and wiped her eyes. 

“Better?” Quentin asked and Sara nodded her head, before reaching behind her for the glass of whiskey. She finished it off and placed the empty glass in the sink. The two of them headed back into the living room where Ava had now joined them. She was sitting on the couch with her feet tucked underneath her and her head was resting on the back of the couch. She was wearing a bureau softball sweatshirt paired with some gray sweatpants and navy blue fuzzy socks. 

“Hey babe,” Ava said softly, smiling at Sara as she sat down beside her. Sara sat as close to her as she possibly could their hands automatically linking together. 

“Is she still as-”

“Mommy?” Riley’s small voice came from behind them. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and her stuffed Simba securely. 

“Hey sweetie, you okay?” Ava asked. Riley climbed onto Ava’s lap and immediately cuddled into her. 

“I had a bad dream.” 

“Okay, do you want to talk about it?” 

“No, I’m too sleepy,” Riley let out a big yawn. 

“Do you want me to come and lay with you until you fall asleep?” Ava asked and Riley nodded her head. “Okay, come on then sweetheart.” Ava said her goodbyes to everyone and took Riley up to bed. 

Once Ava was gone Laurel, Tommy, and Quentin said their goodbyes and left Sara sitting in the living room before she went upstairs to find Ava and Riley. She found the two of them curled up in Riley’s bed, Ava was laid awkwardly, her legs were hanging off of the end of the bed and her back was twisted in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. Meanwhile, Riley looked extremely comfortable, her face was buried in Ava’s neck, her hand was balled up into a little fist as she held onto Ava’s shirt. 

The small girl looked peaceful. It was refreshing to see after everything that had happened.


	6. six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Ava help their daughter through a hard time, and then Thanksgiving comes around and they get some good news.

Since coming home from the waverider, Riley was very closed off. She only spoke when absolutely necessary and spent most of her time curled up in her bed with her stuffed Simba held tight against her chest. 

When Monday morning rolled around, Ava was awake well before her alarm was set to go off. She tried her best to go back to sleep because she barely had any sleep throughout the night, neither of the women had, they were up most of the night trying to console a very distraught Riley. She had a nightmare about what had happened and refused to move from their bed, not that they even wanted her to go back to her own room, it was the most upset that had ever seen her, they didn’t want her to leave their sides. 

As a result, they both ended up staying awake most of the night, just laid staring up at the ceiling ready to be there to help calm her down if she had another nightmare. 

Ava rolled onto her side to see Riley fast asleep, she was curled up in a little ball with the covers pulled up to her chin. She looked over her daughter and to the other side of the bed where her wife laid on her side, her eyes were closed but Ava could tell that she wasn’t properly asleep. Ava sat up slightly and grabbed her phone from her bedside table, she looked through a few work-related emails that she had received over the weekend. 

She was in the middle of responding to one of them when Sara’s hushed voice brought her attention away from the phone in her hand. 

“What time is it?” Sara’s voice was hoarse, from the lack of sleep. 

“5:01,” Ava whispered and Sara rolled onto her back with a groan. 

“I’m going to work out,” Sara grumbled before stepping out of bed. Ava just nodded her head and watched Sara change into her workout clothes before going into the en-suite. When the smaller woman disappeared behind the door Ava turned her attention back to the email that she was responding to. 

Ava finished with her emails and Riley was still sleeping. She wanted to go and get breakfast ready and have a cup of coffee to keep her awake long enough to begin her day. But, she quickly decided against doing any of that when she thought that it would be best to wait until Riley was awake so that she didn’t have to wake up alone in a bed that wasn’t her own. Even though she had slept in Sara and Ava’s bed more times than you can count on two hands, it would still be a little disorientating for her because it didn’t happen too often, and she had a rough couple of days. 

So Ava put her phone back on the bedside table and laid down on her side, with her arm propping her head up. She just watched her daughter sleep. The slow rise and fall of her chest and the way her face twitched slightly in her sleep made the taller woman smile. 

It reminded her that Riley was there. She was there and she was safe. Ava slowly reached over, careful not to wake the small girl, and wiped stray strands of hair away from Riley’s face and behind her ears. 

Almost an hour later, Ava was struggling to keep her eyes open. She nestled her head into the pillow and let her eyes close, only to be disturbed moments later when Sara placed a cup of coffee on the bedside table. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Sara said with a slight grimace on her face. Ava shook her head and sat up with her back against the headboard and the coffee in her hands. 

“You didn’t, thank you for the coffee.” Ava took a sip of the steaming drink and turned to look at her wife with a tired, lopsided smile, as she joined Ava on the bed. Both of them sat with their backs against the headboard with Riley still sleeping between them. 

“What are we supposed to do?” Sara’s voice was so quiet that Ava would have missed it if the room wasn’t so silent. 

“I have no idea, do we send her to school so that she still has that little bit of normalcy, or do we keep her home where she’s safe and comfortable?” Ava questioned, more to herself than Sara. 

“Do you think we should ask her what she wants to do?” Sara questioned and Ava nodded her head. 

“Yeah let’s do that. I hope she wants to stay home though, I don’t think I feel comfortable sending her to school, because what if something happens and we can’t get there quick enough to comfort her. As lovely as her teacher is, there’s no way that she would be able to help her feel better.” Ava drank the last bit of her coffee before reaching over and placing the cup on her bedside table, replacing it with her phone. “I’m going to call work and tell them I’m not coming in.”

“Babe, it’s six-fifteen in the morning, will anybody even be there?” Sara asked with a small chuckle. 

“No, only security and the overnight team who are there if something serious happens to the timeline and to take care of the prisoners,” Ava shrugged her shoulders and scrolled through her contacts to find the correct number to call. When she found it, she quietly left the room and Sara was left alone with Riley. 

The small girl started twitching and moving in her sleep. Soft whimpering sounds left her lips, and her face scrunched up. Sara moved her hand to rest on Riley’s cheek, her thumb stroking the soft skin that was now bright red and tears began to roll down them, wetting the pad of Sara’s thumb. Usually, she wouldn’t wake somebody up from a nightmare, but she couldn’t bear the fact that her daughter was crying in her sleep. She shook her gently and her eyes opened slowly. She blinked a few times to let her eyes adjust to the bright room, before turning on her side and looking at Sara. 

“You’re okay baby, I’ve got you, it was just a dream. Do you want a hug?” Sara asked softly and Riley nodded her head at the question, Sara wrapped her arms around the small girl and held her tight against her. “You’re okay, shhh, it’s okay,” Sara whispered as she rubbed Riley’s back to help calm her down. 

When Riley finally stopped crying she just clung onto Sara’s hoodie, and buried her face into it. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Sara asked.

Riley hesitated for a moment, before pulling away and looking up at Sara. Her cheeks were stained with tears and her eyes were a little bloodshot. “It was about what happened at the soccer game,” Riley said, not saying anymore. Partly because she didn’t want to but also because Sara didn’t need to hear anymore, she knew exactly what the nightmare was about and she didn’t want Riley to have to go into detail about it. 

“How about we go and see what mom is up to and then we can get breakfast started and figure out what we want to do today,” Sara suggested and at the mention of Ava, Riley scrambled out of the bed and hurried down the stairs to find the taller blonde sitting on the couch with her phone pressed to her ear as she talked to the person on the other end about work stuff. 

Riley stalked across the living room and tucked herself into Ava’s side. The taller woman lifted her arm and automatically pulled her closer to her as she carried on speaking on the phone. Sara smiled at the sight, Ava was such a good mom, it came so easy to her she was such a caring and loving person; Sara found it hard to believe that there was a time that Ava was up at 2 am having a panic attack over the thought of messing up and not being a good parent. 

Sara sat down on the opposite couch and watched the two of them with a soft smile on her face. Ava went over a few more things with the person on the phone, before finally ending the call. 

“Morning honey, how are you feeling today?” Ava asked and Riley just shrugged her shoulders. “Are you hungry? We can make pancakes or waffles, or whatever you feel like eating,” Ava suggested and the small girl just shook her head and pulled away from Ava, opting to curl up at the other end of the couch instead. 

“I need to use the bathroom,” Riley suddenly announced before scurrying out of the room, the two women shared a concerned look and gave her a moment before making the silent decision to go and check on her. 

“Are you okay in there sweetheart?” Ava asked through the door and the small girl responded with a muffled, ‘yes’, followed by the sound of a toilet flushing and the tap turning on. 

When the door opened Riley stepped through with tears in her eyes. She looked up at her moms and their hearts broke at the sight of their daughter looking so upset. Ava crouched down so that she was level with Riley. 

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Ava asked softly as she cupped Riley’s cheeks. 

“I’m scared, I don’t want you and mama to leave me, I know you have to work and I have to go to school-” she hiccuped and the tears were rolling down her cheeks, no matter how many times Ava wiped them away, more tears filled their place. “I don’t want you to go, I want to stay with you, because-” she hiccuped again, “because I don’t want the man to get me and if you aren’t with me then he might, please don’t let him get me, please.” 

By the time she finished speaking she was sobbing, Ava pulled her into a tight hug, her hand running up and down her back. They moved to sit on the floor so that they were more comfortable and Sara sat behind Riley, her hand replacing Ava’s in rubbing soothing circles on her back. They shared a look over Riley’s head, it was heartbreaking to see their daughter this broken up. 

“We aren’t going anywhere baby, you don’t have to go to school, not if you don’t feel up to it,” Sara said softly before speaking again, “we can stay home and watch movies all day and eat ice cream or if you need to get out of the house we can do that too, it is completely up to you Ry. And you don’t have to worry about that man getting you, he is going away for a long time. We won’t let anything happen to you okay? You’re safe, we’ve got you.”

They sat in the hallway for a little longer, doing everything they possibly could to reassure their daughter. 

When they finally went downstairs almost an hour had gone by. Ava decided to make pancakes for breakfast because they’re Riley’s favorite. However, the small girl merely nibbled the edge of the pancake before pushing her plate away and staring down at the table. 

“What’s wrong honey? Do you not want to eat them? You can have more maple syrup or chocolate chips, whatever you want,” Ava said but Riley shook her head. 

“I’m not hungry,” Riley mumbled and continued staring down at the table. 

That carried on for the next few days. 

Sometimes she just flat out refused to eat anything at all. But some days they managed to convince her to eat, even if she did only eat less than half of what was on her plate. 

She also barely spoke. It felt like they had gone back in time. She was like the girl she was when they first met her. 

They tried their absolute best though. They were patient with her and after about a week, she finally ate a full meal. They figured out that they had to start off with smaller portions for her, so she wasn’t so intimidated by the amount of food on the plate; over the following weeks they just put slightly more food on her plate (just enough that she wouldn’t really notice) and it worked. They added a little more each day and by the time they reached thanksgiving her eating habits were seemingly back to normal. 

They decided to spend the holiday at home that year. Not wanting to bring Riley out of her comfort zone just yet. She was doing so well and they didn’t want to erase any of that. 

So they invited the Legends round, the Lances (including Tommy), and Nate’s mom and grandma. 

That morning Ava was awake at five in the morning, rushing around the kitchen trying to get everything ready for the day. Sara appeared in the kitchen almost an hour later. 

She had a tired smile on her face as she watched Ava furiously mix something in a large bowl. 

“Babe, why are you up so early? We did almost all of the prep last night, to avoid exactly this,” Sara gestured to the kitchen island that was completely covered in various cooking supplies. Ava looked up from the bowl at her wife with furrowed brows, her hands still mixing whatever was in the bowl.

“I wasn’t feeling good, so I just thought it was better to come and get started on the food instead of laying in bed feeling gross,” Ava said softly.

Sara’s face turned from amusement to concern. She moved around the kitchen island and behind Ava, her arms wrapped around the taller woman’s waist with her head resting on her shoulder. 

“Why don’t you feel good, is everything okay?” Sara asked before pressing a few kisses to the side of Ava’s neck.

“I just felt a little nauseous, it’s okay, I’m okay now. It was probably just the stress of everything that has happened and having to get everything ready for Thanksgiving,” Ava shrugged her shoulders and finally stopped mixing.

She turned in Sara’s arms and loosely wrapped her arms around her neck. 

“Do you want some tea? Go and sit down, I’ll finish doing this and get breakfast started for when Ry gets up,” Sara said. 

“No, I’m fine, I feel better,” Ava lied the nausea was still there, and as much as she wanted to convince herself that it was helping, all of the movements and smells made her feel worse. 

Sara looked at her with a raised brow, and Ava didn’t have to be told twice. She untangled herself from Sara’s embrace and wandered into the living room and sat down on the couch.

Shortly after, Sara walked in with a steaming cup of Ava’s favorite tea and a glass of water. Just in case the tea was too much for her. 

Sara sat down beside her and they cuddled together. It was still kind of dark outside and there was a thin sheet of snow on the ground. 

They sat in a peaceful silence, sipping their tea, and enjoying one another’s embrace and the calm of the morning before all of the chaos that was bound to happen during the day. It wasn’t until they heard Riley’s soft footsteps descending the staircase, that they realized how much time had actually passed. 

The small girl wandered into the living room with Simba tucked tightly under her left arm and her hair a complete mess on top of her head, her pajama top was backwards somehow and her eyelids were half-closed as she made her way over to her moms. 

“Morning baby, did you sleep okay?” Sara asked as she helped the still half-asleep girl up onto the couch to sit in the small space between them. 

“Mhmm, I had a dream about playing hockey and I won,” Riley said with a lopsided grin. 

Ava shifted in her seat slightly, to give Riley a little more space. Her hand moved to smooth the hair on top of Riley’s head, “of course you won, you’re the greatest hockey player I’ve ever met,” Ava said softly. In return, Riley ducked her head slightly and her cheeks flushed a light pink color. 

“I am?” Riley asked shyly.

“You’re the best, and you’re just going to get better as you get older and play more,” Ava said and Riley’s eyes filled with a happiness and excitement that they hadn’t seen enough of lately. 

They sat in a comfortable silence after that, cuddled up to one another, with the tv now playing in the background. 

“Are you ready to eat breakfast or do you want to wait a little longer?” Sara broke the silence between them. 

“Longer, I wanna cuddle,” Riley mumbled as she settled further into the couch and nestled her head into Ava’s side. 

“Okay, just for a little while, because we have a busy day ahead of us,” Sara said and Riley’s eyes lit up. It was as though she had only just realized that it was thanksgiving. 

“Is grandpa coming still?” Riley’s voice was full of hope and excitement at the fact that she was going to get to spend the entire day with her grandpa. It had been a while since she had spent the entire day with him, mostly because he was extremely busy at work but also because Riley was still hesitant to be apart from Sara and Ava for an extended period of time. It made her extremely anxious, to the point where she made herself sick. But, she was getting better with it, just like she was with everything else since the incident. 

“Of course, he said he would be here at ten, and Aunt Laurel and Uncle Tommy are coming at the same time, and then the legends will be here in time to eat!” Ava said with a smile on her face when she saw the happiness in her daughter's eyes. 

They sat snuggled together on the couch for a short while before having breakfast. Once they had eaten, Sara and Ava got back to preparing the food while Riley sat down at the kitchen island and watched them move around in perfect synchronization. It wasn’t long before she insisted on helping, even bringing up the fact that she and Sara did so well at making the deserts the year before. It took one look at her big blue puppy dog eyes for Ava to cave and let her help with the stuffing. 

“Hello?” Quentin’s voice traveled through the house and Riley’s eyes went wide before she stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and darted towards the front door. 

“Grandpa!” 

“Hey, kiddo!” Quentin exclaimed as he caught Riley in his arms before she could crash into him. 

“Hey dad,” Sara said as she emerged from the kitchen, Ava followed moments later. He greeted each of them with a hug before they moved to the living room, Sara made a coffee for them and a hot chocolate for Riley. 

Ava took a sip of her coffee, and all of a sudden she put the mug onto the coffee table and rushed out of the room. Sara excused herself and went find her wife. 

She found her knelt in front of the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. One hand was gripping the side of the bowl while her other hand was trying to hold her own hair back. Sara dashed to her side and held her hair back for her while rubbing circles on her back. 

Once Ava was sure she was done throwing up she moved away from the toilet and sat with her back against the cold tiles and closed her eyes. Meanwhile, Sara filled up a glass with water and handed it to her before sitting down beside her. 

“Are you okay? What’s going on? Is it because we’re having everyone over because it’s going to be fine, we’ve had everyone over before, it’s going to be fine babe,” Sara said and Ava leaned her head on the smaller woman’s shoulder. She didn't respond to the words that were tumbling out of her wife’s mouth, mostly because she wasn’t really listening, her mind was racing with a million and one reasons she could possibly be sick. But one stood out to her. She was hesitant to say it out loud in fear of it not being true and then getting their hopes up only for them to be crushed once again. 

“I think I might be pregnant,” Ava’s voice was so quiet and full of fear. She wasn’t scared to be pregnant, they had been trying for months now. She was scared of it being another false alarm. She slowly lifted her head from Sara’s shoulder so that she could look at her. 

“Okay, stay here I’ll go and grab a test for you, keep taking sips of the water, I’ll be quick but shout me if you throw up again,” Sara was up and out of the room before Ava could say a word. As soon as the captain left the bathroom, Laurel and Tommy walked through the front door. She shouted hello to them as she sprinted up the stairs. 

She grabbed the test, shoved it under her shirt so that nobody else could see it and sprinted back downstairs. Luckily Ava hadn’t seemed to have thrown up again and was still sitting in the same position. Sara closed the door behind her and locked it just in case anybody decided to check in on them. 

“I got it,” Sara pulled it from under her shirt with a huge grin on her face. 

Ava took it from her with a grateful smile and moved to the toilet. 

“Sara I can’t pee with you staring at me like that,” Ava said. Sara was standing there staring at Ava and chewing on her bottom lip. 

“Right, yeah, sorry, I’ll just-” she turned her focus away from her wife and pulled her phone from her back pocket to see a text from Laurel asking if they needed anything doing. She quickly text her back and told her that if she did anything other than sitting on the couch and relaxing she would be in trouble. 

“Now we wait,” Ava said as she flushed the toilet and washed her hands. They both leaned against the wall and waited for the results of the test. 

“If it comes back negative I think we should think of something else, because I don’t think I can do this anymore it sucks,” Ava broke the silence between them. 

Sara reached down and intertwined their fingers before bringing Ava’s hand up to her lips and pressing a soft kiss to the back of it. “Whatever you want baby, we can look into adoption.”

“This is the longest three minutes of my life,” Ava sighed. In reality, the time was almost up. “I can’t look at it.”

Sara grabbed the test from the counter and looked at the little window on the side of it. Her eyes went wide and a huge grin spread across her face. 

“You’re pregnant,” Sara whispered holding the test up for Ava to see. A matching smile broke out on Ava’s face and she crashed into Sara’s arms. 

“We’re having a baby.”

“We’re having a baby,” Sara repeated, her hand moved to the back of Ava’s head to pull her closer. They closed the gap between them in an attempt to kiss, which resulted in them clashing teeth because they were both smiling so hard. 

Ava quickly pulled away though, when she felt another wave of nausea hit her. Once she was sure that the worst was over she stood up and cleaned herself up a little. Sara went upstairs to grab her toothbrush for her while she tied her hair back into a messy bun. It was only then she got a good look at the pregnancy test, the first time they looked neither woman paid any attention to what it said under the word pregnant. 

“Here you go babe, are you okay over there?” Sara asked with a chuckle, when she walked into the bathroom Ava was holding the test close to her face so that she could get a proper look at it. 

“This says that I’m four to six weeks pregnant,” Ava said with a furrowed brow.

“Yeah? Is that not correct?”

“No, that means I was already pregnant before we went away for the weekend, oh my god I drank so much wine we need to go and see Gideon,” Ava said as she made a move to leave the bathroom. She was starting to panic and Sara could see it in her eyes, she stood in front of her and took her face in her hands.

“Babe, it will be fine, you would have only been pregnant for just over a week nothing bad would have happened, she will be absolutely fine, we can go and get checked out tomorrow, okay?” Sara said softly and Ava nodded her head before pressing a soft kiss against Sara’s lips. 

“Wait, what about when I thought I had my period just before we went away? That can’t be good right?” 

“That was probably just something to do with the egg implanting or something, Laur said it happened to her.”

“Okay, but we’re going to see Gideon first thing tomorrow morning, and then we need to look into doctors and-”

“Stop worrying, everything is going to be fine we have so much time to figure all of that stuff out, right now we should probably get out there and put the Turkey in the oven, because we will be eating pumpkin pie and Mac n cheese for dinner if we don’t,” Sara said and Ava nodded her head before they finally exited the bathroom. 

Upon entering the living room they noticed that almost everybody was there, apart from Ray and Nora. Riley shot up from her seat beside Quentin and sprinted over to Ava. 

“Are you okay mommy? I missed you,” Riley said as she clung to Ava’s waist. 

“I’m okay sweetie, I missed you too,” Ava said before leaning down to hug her daughter. They said their hello’s to everyone before Sara made a move to go to the kitchen and start getting the food ready.

“Okay, Ava go and sit down, I’ll get you some water. Ry do you wanna come and help me with dinner?” Sara questioned and the small girl nodded her head, before scurrying after Sara. 

The two got to work and before they knew it they were cleaning everything away and Riley had escaped to go and watch the football game with Quentin. Sara was left standing in the kitchen, watching over some of the food to make sure that it didn’t burn, her back was facing the doorway so she didn’t notice her sister sneak in. 

“Hey, what’s going on with Ava? Ry said that she’s sick,” Laurel questioned. 

“Oh, uh, yeah, she’s not feeling too good,” Sara’s voice wavered slightly because even though it wasn’t a lie, Ava was feeling gross. But that wasn’t the whole truth and she was the worst liar in the world, all Laurel had to do was raise an eyebrow at her sister, and the truth came tumbling out. “Okay, fine. She’s pregnant!” Sara whispered excitedly, a grin spreading across her face as her sister pulled her into a hug; as best as she could with her pregnant belly between them.

“I didn’t even know you were trying! Sara! Who is the donor? Is he hot, does he look like you?” so many questions fell from her sister’s mouth that she found it hard to keep up with her. 

“The donor is me, the baby is both of ours biologically,” Sara said and Laurel just froze, not really knowing how to respond to that.

“Wait, what? That’s impossible.”

“We used future technology, I found out about it when we were on a mission.”

“I can’t believe Ava broke the rules,” Laurel said with a soft chuckle.

“It took her a while to come around to the idea, she did so much research on it before we used it, and Nate ended up walking in on her watching porn because she thought it was an educational video on how to use it,” Sara said and the two sisters burst out into a fit of laughter because no matter how long ago it happened, it was still hilarious to Sara. 

Laurel asked a million other questions before they finally joined everyone else back in the living room. Nora and Ray arrived just before the food was ready and once it was time to eat everyone cramped around the table in the dining room. They each went around the table and said what they were thankful for before digging in. 

The day ended with Quentin, Ava, and Ray cleaning up the kitchen, even though Ava insisted that they didn’t need to help because they were the guests, but they did it anyway. Laurel also tried to help but she was told to sit down, she was weeks away from giving birth so she was banned from doing anything but sitting down and relaxing. 

Once that was done, everyone piled back into the living room and played games. Sara and Ava were forced onto the same team, because after last Christmas, Laurel knew how competitive they both were and didn’t want to take any chances, so the best thing to do was keep them on the same side, to avoid petty arguments that she knew would happen. Luckily, it worked, and instead of arguing with each other, they were arguing with everyone else and accusing them of cheating whenever they didn’t win. 

All in all, it was a very eventful and tiring day. But it was all worth it in Sara’s eyes as she glanced around the room to see her entire family there, healthy and most of all happy.


	7. seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava gets checked out by Gideon and Laurel goes into labor.

The day after Thanksgiving, Sara and Ava dropped Riley off at Laurel and Tommy’s place for the morning so that they could go and get the baby checked over by Gideon. 

“I believe congratulations are in order, the baby appears to be healthy and you are currently six weeks pregnant, Director Lance,” Gideon confirmed. 

Ava squeezed Sara’s hand and the two looked at one another with the biggest smiles on their faces. There was an actual baby growing inside of Ava, the idea freaked her out a little, mostly because she couldn’t feel it happening and yet it was. She was over the moon though. After months filled with negative test results, they were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Sara was equally as happy. They were adding to their family and she knew that Riley had been bugging them about having a sibling ever since they moved into the new house. Hopefully, she still felt the same way. 

“Wait, Gideon, six weeks means that I was already pregnant when you checked our fertility levels, how did you not detect it?” Ava questioned, remembering her worries about how the hormone shots would affect the baby. 

“When I did those tests, the pregnancy was very early on and it was undetectable, however, I can assure you that the baby is completely healthy, the hormone shots did nothing to affect her and she is growing at a normal rate, currently she is the size of a pomegranate seed,” Gideon explained and Ava’s shoulders physically deflated, the stress that she was keeping bottled up inside about the health of their baby, disappeared. Not completely but it wasn’t going to keep her up at night again. 

“Gid, can you do ultrasounds, or do we need a person for that?” Sara questioned, tilting her head back slightly to look up at the ceiling. 

“Unfortunately Captain, I am unable to administer a traditional ultrasound, however, I am able to do a scan of Director Lance to determine the baby’s health conditions, but I would suggest seeing a human doctor about this as they are more equipped to handle this,” Gideon stated before falling silent once again. 

“I guess we need to find a doctor then,” Sara grumbled. 

“I was looking online last night and it came up with a few highly recommended ones in Star City,” Ava said and Sara just let out a soft chuckle, because of course her wife was up late into the night researching doctors; what else would she be doing? 

“Okay, whichever you think is the best we can go to them, I don’t really know about this stuff.”

“Weren’t you going to be a doctor?” Ava asked with a raised brow and a slight smirk gracing her lips. 

“Well yeah, but you know a few things came up and I had to drop out of school, it’s no biggie,” Sara joked, earning an eye roll from her wife. “Come on, we can take Ry out for lunch and tell her the news, and then we can tell everyone else.”

They left the Waverider and portaled into Laurel and Tommy’s living room. 

“Jesus Christ, I told you to stop doing that Sara!” Laurel exclaimed, clutching her chest as she tried to get her breathing and heart rate back to normal. 

“Sorry,” Sara apologized, holding her hands up, but Laurel knew the apology wasn’t real, Sara had way too much fun messing with her sister. There was no way she was going to start opening portals outside in a quiet area and walking through the front door like a normal person. Why would she want to do that?

“Where’s Ry?” Sara questioned as she glanced around the living room and the small girl was nowhere to be seen. 

“Oh, she’s in the other room watching hockey with Tommy, it’s the cutest thing ever, I just hear her tell him facts about the players every now and then,” Laurel said with a soft smile on her face. Sara and Ava turned to look at one another, each with matching smiles on their faces as they heard their daughter tell Tommy about one of the players. “How did it go? How’s the baby?”

“Gid says that she is perfectly healthy and growing at a normal rate, she’s the size of a pomegranate seed right now,” Sara said with the biggest smile on her face. Laurel has very rarely seen her sister this happy. She could probably count on two hands, the number of times she has seen Sara as happy as she was in that moment, throughout her entire adult life. 

“Wait, she? How do you know it’s a girl, it is far too early for that.”

“I mean, it would be impossible for us to have anything but a girl, I’m not sure if Sara told you, we used technology from the future so that the baby is biologically both of ours,” Ava explained in a hushed voice, almost as if she was scared that somebody was secretly listening in and she was going to get into trouble for the misuse of time travel. 

“How could I forget? Ava breaking rules? I never thought I would see the day, my sister is a bad influence on you,” Laurel said, throwing a wink in Ava’s direction causing the latter to blush slightly. 

“Do you guys want something to drink? I don’t think you will be allowed to leave until the game is over,” Laurel asked, and Sara stepped closer to her sister. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be on bed rest? Go and sit down, I'll get the drinks,” Sara said and Laurel didn’t even argue with her. Her feet and ankles were so swollen and everything was uncomfortable. She joined Riley and Tommy in the living room while Sara and Ava got drinks for everyone. 

“Hey honey, did you have a good morning?” Ava asked as she and Sara joined the others in the living room. 

“Mhmm, we are watching hockey and my team is winning,” Riley said excitedly. It was always adorable whenever she referred to her favorite team as ‘her team,’ she got so excited about it whenever they played. However, she still wasn’t comfortable enough to actually go and watch the games with Quentin. 

They stayed at Laurel and Tommy’s house a lot longer than they expected to. They ended up staying there for lunch and leaving in the late afternoon. 

Originally, they had planned to take Riley out for lunch and then tell her about the baby. But, their plans got messed up, and instead they just sat her down on the couch in their living room. 

“Am I in trouble?” Riley asked softly, her eyes widening slightly with panic. It was very rare that she got into trouble and whenever she did it was never for anything too serious. 

“No, no you aren’t in trouble, mom and I just have some news we want to tell you,” Sara said, reaching her hand across Ava’s lap and intertwining their fingers. “Okay, I know we talked about it a little bit before we moved to Star City, and you were very excited about the idea of being a big sister, and now you finally get to be one because mom is pregnant!” 

Riley’s face went through a range of different emotions, first her nose scrunched up in confusion, which very quickly morphed into a huge smile that made her entire face light up like a Christmas tree. 

“I’m gonna be a big sister! This is so exciting I’m going to teach them all about hockey and we can do so many fun things together,” Riley begins reeling off all of the things that they can do, until her eyes go wide. “What if they don’t like me?”

“Honey it is impossible not to love you, you’re going to be the best big sister in the world, your baby sister is going to adore you, I know it,” Ava was quick to reassure her. 

“I’m going to have a baby sister? That’s even more exciting, I’m super excited, when is she going to be born? I hope it’s soon,” Riley said softly, as she chewed on her bottom lip. 

“Not for a while baby, she still has to grow a lot before we get to meet her, but it will go so quick and she will be here before we know it,” Sara said and that just seemed to make the small girl even more excited. 

Following the big news, a week or two into December, Riley felt good enough to finally go back to school. Her first day back was a rollercoaster of emotions. The small girl was mostly excited to get to learn stuff, in a classroom with people her age; instead of sitting at a computer screen either at home, in Ava’s office, or on the Waverider. 

Ava, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck. She tried her best to hide it for Riley’s sake, but the second they got to the school gates Ava bent down so that she was level with Riley, and asked, “are you sure you’re ready for this sweetie, you know you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. Mom and I will be happy with whatever makes you comfortable.”

“I’m sure, I wish you could come with me. I’m excited to learn new stuff, I hope the people in my class remember me,” Riley said softly as she looked between her moms. 

“Of course they’ll remember you, you’re pretty special how could they forget you huh?” Sara said causing a huge grin to break out on Riley’s face. “Go on get in there baby, have a good day, and learn lots of stuff!”

“Remember if you feel uncomfortable at any point in the day tell your teacher and one of us will be here to get you okay?” Riley nodded her head, “okay, have fun! I love you so much!” Ava pulled Riley into a tight hug and the small girl melted into her mom's arms. Sara joined in on the hug before Riley ran off into the classroom. 

After that, Riley settled back into school life better than she did before everything happened. That gave the two women a huge relief. She also seemed happier than she had ever been. Which made the weeks leading up to Christmas all the more exciting, because Riley seemed to be back to her usual bubbly self. 

However, she still wasn’t very comfortable with being on the waverider. Her memories of that day also included the waverider so she seemed to associate the ship with the bad thing that happened. That upset the legends slightly, but they were all more than happy to go to Star City to spend time with their niece. Zari especially, because she still wasn’t very used to spending so much time cramped up with everyone on the ship, some weekends she would just turn up at their door with a small suitcase and insist that she was staying over. Leaving no room for Sara and Ava to say no, especially because Riley got so excited about it. 

It proved to be a little difficult at first, because usually when Ava was working and Sara got called in for a mission. Sara would take Riley onto the ship with her and leave her with whoever was QBing the mission that day. But, when the small girl refused to go with her one time it meant that Sara was stuck. She tried to pick her up and take her onto the ship but that ended in Riley having a panic attack, so Sara told the team to go without her, but Sara had to take Riley to Ava’s office so that she could go and bail the legends out. 

Luckily for them, Quentin wasn’t working as many hours as he used to and he offered to take care of her at any chance he got. Which is how he found himself sitting in the hospital waiting room trying to keep his granddaughter entertained. 

“Are my mom's gonna be here soon?” Riley asked as she looked away from the game she was playing on his phone. 

“I think so, your mom said she would be here as soon as she can get out of her meeting and Gideon said that your mama would be here when she’s finished her mission,” Quentin said. 

That seemed to satisfy Riley because she nodded her head and turned her attention back to the game she was playing. She quickly got bored of playing it though. 

“Is aunt Laurel going to be okay?” Riley asked softly. 

“Yeah, she’s going to be fine. She’s in there with Uncle Tommy and hopefully, your cousin will be here soon so you can meet him,” Quentin replied and Riley’s eyes lit up at the thought of that. 

But, she got very quiet very quickly. Her whole body seemed to shrink. She brought her knees up to her chest and just stared straight ahead. 

“Grandpa can I ask you a question,” Riley asked after a few moments of silence between the two of them. 

Quentin leaned back and wrapped his arm around Riley, she dropped her knees and leaned into his side. “Of course baby, what’s going on in that brain of yours huh?” 

“Do you think my moms and aunt Laurel are having babies because they want to replace me because I’m not brave like them and they want someone who is really a part of their family?” Riley mumbled and Quentin tensed up slightly at the question. He clearly wasn’t expecting it, however, he gave Riley a soft squeeze before letting go of her so that he could see her. 

“I need you to listen to me, sweetheart nobody is trying to replace you, you’re irreplaceable. Your moms, aunt Laurel, uncle Tommy, all of your other aunts and uncles, and I love you so much and if you ask me I think you’re one of the bravest people in this family. Now, whose made you think that you aren’t a part of this family huh?”

Riley shrugged her shoulders at the question, but all it took was Quentin’s raised eyebrows and she was talking, “a boy in my class said that his mom said two girls can’t have a baby together and that it’s not a real family without a dad, and then he said that nobody wanted me because they had to adopt me, so that means that I wasn’t good enough for my real family. That upset me because my moms are my real family, but then I thought that they were having a baby because they think that too, that I’m not good enough.”

Quentin widened his eyes slightly and looked up at the ceiling for a brief moment to try and stop the tears that were building up in his eyes from falling. He managed to subtly wipe them away before looking back down at his granddaughter. 

“Ignore him, everything that boy said to you is wrong. You being adopted doesn’t mean that nobody wanted you, it means the opposite, your moms adopted you because they wanted you in their lives because they love you so much that sounds to me like you’re wanted. Family is a funny thing, there is no set way a family should look, some families have two moms, or two dads or one mom, or one dad, but you’re lucky to have two moms who care for you as much as they do,” Quentin paused for a moment as he looked down at Riley. She had tears in her eyes and a stray tear rolling down her cheek, he lifted his thumb and gently wiped it away before giving her a hug. It was slightly awkward because of the armrest between them, but Riley quickly stood up and climbed onto his lap. 

“I don’t ever want you to think that you aren’t good enough okay? You are incredible Riley, you’re so smart and funny and so, so brave.”

“Thank you, grandpa, I love you,” Riley said as she cuddled into him further. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and wrapped his arms around her and leaned back into the slightly uncomfortable hospital chair. 

“I love you to Ry, now who is this boy who’s been saying this to you?” 

Riley was hesitant at first but caved eventually and told Quentin everything that the boy had said and done to her. 

Shortly after that Sara and Ava arrive with the food in hand. 

“She didn’t have the baby yet, did she?” Sara asked as they made their way over to where Quentin and Riley were sitting. 

“I don’t think so, nobody will tell me anything,” Quentin said and Sara just nodded her head. 

“I’m so hungry, can we eat now?” Riley whined and tried to grab the paper bag from Sara. 

“Yeah, here you go baby,” Sara handed a plastic container to Riley and the small girl's face scrunched up slightly at the fact that Sara was handing her a salad.

“Thank you,” Riley said hesitantly, a little unsure whether Sara was being serious or not. But she took it anyway. 

She was about to take the lid off but stopped when she heard Ava say her name. 

“That’s mine honey, your mom is just being a jerk, here you go,” Ava said, she handed the subway sandwich to Riley and took the salad from her. Sara let out a soft chuckle and that earned her a playful slap on the arm from Ava. 

Once they had finished eating their food Quentin went to discard the trash and find out if there were any updates on Laurel and the baby. 

“The nurse said that she’s just down the hallway and that we can go in and see her if we like,” Quentin said and Riley jumped off of her seat and sprinted through the hallway, with the three of them following close behind. 

They found the room and Laurel was sitting on a yoga ball with her back to the door. Tommy was massaging her shoulders as they watched whatever random show was playing on the tv. 

“Aunt Laurel! Are you okay?” Riley asked, she was about to run over to her but Sara grabbed onto her shoulders and held her in place. 

“I will be when this baby is born,” Laurel managed to say before a contraction took over her body. 

Riley’s eyes widened and she took a step back, causing her to accidentally stand on Sara’s feet. 

Once the contraction was over Laurel got back onto the bed with help from Tommy and everyone else found a place to sit. 

They were there for another few hours and Laurel's labor hadn’t progressed any further. It was almost 11 pm and Riley had fallen asleep, so they made her a makeshift bed in the corner of the room away from everything. Sara was sitting on a chair with her feet resting on Ava’s thighs, Tommy was sleeping in a chair beside Laurel and Quentin was on the other side of Sara replying to some emails. 

“You know, I saw on some tv show, I think it was Grey's Anatomy. You know the one with the hot Italian doctor, that labor is less painful or something if you have an orgasm,” Sara said before shoveling some m&m’s into her mouth. Her comment received a light slap on her bicep from Ava and Quentin's eyes just went wide before glaring at Sara. 

“Wait how would that even work if the baby is coming out of… that area,” Laurel asked curiously. 

“There are other ways to orgasm Laur,” Sara said with a slightly concerned look on her face, that her sister was even asking that kind of question. 

“I’m going to get a drink,” Quentin mumbled and left the room. Sara let out a soft chuckle before she asked him to grab her a coffee. 

“I don’t understand how that would help with the pain,” Ava said after a few moments of silence. 

Sara shrugged her shoulders, “I guess it just releases something, I mean you’ve had an orgasm before,” just as Sara said those words Quentin was about to walk back into the room but quickly turned around and left. “As I was saying, you’ve had an orgasm before you know how that feels, I imagine it will help a lot.”

Ava was blushing furiously and she so desperately wanted to change the topic, but Sara had a point. 

“Oh! Would you look at the time, I should probably get Ry home so she can sleep in her own bed,” Ava said and Sara nodded her head. “Call me if anything changes.”

Ava hugged Laurel and pressed a chaste kiss to Sara’s lips before scooping Riley up into her arms. Sara checked and double-checked that no doctors were around before she opened a portal right into Riley’s bedroom. Ava stepped through and it closed behind her. 

Once they left, Sara settled back into her seat and Quentin came back with a coffee for Sara, one for himself, and a bottle of water for Laurel. Tommy was still sleeping so he figured he wouldn’t want anything. 

The night passed slower than ever and it wasn’t until 5:30 am that Laurel was finally ready to push. Sara and Quentin left the room and found themselves back in the waiting room. Sara sat back into the plastic-covered chairs as she watched her dad pace back and forth in front of her. Sara sent a quick text to Ava to let her know what was going on and she didn’t expect her to text back as soon as she did; she said that she would wait until Riley was awake and they would be back at the hospital. 

“Dad sit down please, you’re making me feel dizzy,” Sara said after a while. He eventually sat down beside her and let out a deep breath. “She’s going to be okay you know.”

“I know that, it’s just my baby is having a baby. I remember the day she was born and it doesn’t seem two minutes ago and now here we are, you have a kid and another one on the way and Laur is having her first kid,” Quentin paused for a moment before turning to look at Sara, “time is moving too quickly, sometimes I wish I could just stop for a moment to be able to enjoy it all.”

“I know, I remember when Laur and I would sit in her bedroom late at night and she would just talk about the future. She would tell me all of her plans about her wedding, about the house she was going to live in, the person she was going to marry, all of it. It’s crazy to think that what we were fantasizing about all those years ago is actually a reality.” Sara said softly, before leaning her head on her dad's shoulder. “You do realize that I’m the captain of a time ship right? I can take you to any time and any place, just don’t tell Ava about it or else we’ll be in trouble,” she chuckled. 

“I might have to take you up on that offer,” Quentin said after a moment of silence between them. 

More time passed and they were still sitting in the waiting room. Then Riley came running into the waiting area, dragging Ava with her. She quickly let go of Ava’s hand and launched herself at Sara, she jumped onto her lap and wrapped her arms tightly around her mom. 

Ava handed a cup of coffee to Sara and one to Quentin, they both accepted them gratefully. It wasn’t too long after that, that a very tired but excited looking Tommy appeared in the waiting room. Quentin jumped from his seat and stood close to his son-in-law. 

“Both Laurel and the baby are fine and perfectly healthy, he’s had all of the tests and stuff so you guys can come and meet him now,” Tommy said and the four of them followed him down the hallway. 

When they entered the room Laurel was on the bed with the small baby in her arms. She looked exhausted, which wasn’t a surprise; giving birth is a very tiring thing to do. But she was glowing, she looked happier than ever and so did Tommy. 

Riley was about to rush over to the bed but Ava placed her hands on her shoulders and held her back. The last thing Laurel needed was an excited six-year-old jumping on the bed. 

“Guys meet Lucas Oliver Merlyn,” Laurel said with the biggest smile on her face. Quentin broke down into tears when he heard his grandson's name. Sara wrapped an arm around her dad’s shoulder and he quickly composed himself. “Do you want to hold him, dad?” 

Quentin nodded, not trusting his voice, and lifted Lucas from Laurel's arms, he was careful to support his head as he cradled him in his arms. Ava made sure to take plenty of pictures because she knew everyone would want something to remember the day by. She took pictures of Quentin holding the baby, he had the biggest smile on his face and tears in his eyes. 

When it came to her turn Sara was a little hesitant to hold him, “what if I drop him?”

“You won’t drop him, Sara, besides you should probably get some practice in before it’s Ava’s turn in this position,” Laurel said. 

Quentin handed Lucas to Sara, he made sure that his head was secure and that he was comfortable in her arms. She looked down at her nephew, his tiny hand was balled up into a fist and his eyes opened for a second as he looked up at her. She sat down on a chair and motioned for Riley to join her. She knew how excited she was about her cousin and she looked a little sad that everyone was getting to hold him before she had even had the chance to see him properly. Ava made sure to take as many pictures as possible when Riley sat beside Sara and looked down at her cousin with the biggest smile on her face. 

She looked so genuinely happy and excited. Even more so when Laurel suggested that she hold him. That made Ava panic slightly, even though Riley was a very cautious girl she was still a child, an excited one at that. But Sara made sure that she sat with her back against the chair and made her promise that she wouldn’t stand up before she placed the baby in her arms. Ava snapped a few more pictures before sitting down beside Riley, her arm was resting behind the small girl's back as she looked down at her nephew. 

“He kind of looks like a potato,” Riley whispered, earning a soft chuckle from Sara. “A cute potato though!”

After a while, Ava finally took Lucas from Riley and held him in her arms, but the second she got him settled and secure in her arms he started crying. She panicked a little and handed him back to Laurel who managed to calm him down. Once he appeared to be sleeping Laurel suggested that Ava should hold him again, but just like before he started to cry as soon as she had him in her arms. In the end, she handed him back to Laurel and sat down beside Riley, and tried not to get upset and overthink the situation. 

They stayed for around half an hour before Ava saw the time and realized that if they didn’t leave soon that Riley would be late for school. The three of them said their goodbyes and dropped Riley off at school, it wasn’t until Sara and Ava were back at the house that Sara addressed Ava’s sudden change in mood. 

“Hey, are you okay you’ve been very quiet since before we even left the hospital,” Sara tucked a loose strand of hair behind Ava’s ear and the taller woman closed her eyes momentarily at the soft touch. 

“I’m okay, it’s nothing, it’s silly really. I should get going I don’t want to be late for work,” Ava mumbled and made a move to grab her bag from where it was sitting by the front door. But, before she could go anywhere Sara grabbed onto her wrist and pulled her back towards her. 

“I’m not letting you go to work like this babe.”

“I don’t need your permission to go to work, I’m fine.”

Sara rolled her eyes before saying, “I know you don’t need permission, I’m just worried about you! I want to help you, and I don’t like the thought of you not feeling good and being stuck at work all day.”

Ava let out a sigh as she sat down on the couch. Her hands tightly clasped together on top of her knees. She refused to look at Sara, who had joined her on the couch, and instead just stared down at her feet. She felt Sara’s hand land on her back as it rubbed soothing circles on her upper back. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap, I'm tired and I just- I’m scared. You saw how he cried every time I held him, he didn’t do it when anyone else held him not even Riley, I don’t know why I thought that having a baby was a good idea I’m going to be terrible at it, I can’t even hold a baby without making him cry what am I supposed to do when ours is upset and needs soothing, I’m not going to be able to do it and they’re going to grow up to hate me,” Ava said as she tried her best to not cry. 

“Oh Aves, he was probably just tired of being passed around from person to person, it’s nothing you did, you did everything right. You aren’t going to be terrible at it, we have Ry to show for that, she loves you so much babe, you’re a great mom already, and yeah babies are a little different to a six-year-old but we will figure it out together, you aren’t alone in this babe. I’m here with you every step of the way, okay?” Sara pulled Ava closer to her when she finished speaking and the taller woman melted into the embrace. She wiped away her tears and the two women sat there for a few moments. 

“What do you say we both play hooky, you call in sick and I’ll tell the Legends they can have the day off and we go for a coffee and a walk?” Sara suggested and Ava contemplated it for a moment before agreeing. Sara smiled at the taller woman, she knew exactly how to make her wife feel better, coffee was always a good place to start and whenever Ava was feeling upset or anxious she liked to go for a walk to clear her mind. So that is exactly what they were going to do. 

They found themselves walking through the park and towards the lake, with a coffee in their hands. They each had an arm around one another’s waist, mostly because they like being close to one another, but also to try and keep warm in the cold December weather. 

They made it to the lake and found an empty bench to sit at. It was quite busy for a Thursday morning, there were kids everywhere. Most of them were very young and were with their moms by the lake feeding the ducks. While the slightly older ones were playing on the playground behind them. The two women sat so that their thighs were touching and Ava’s head was leaning on Sara’s shoulder. 

“You’re gonna be great at it you know,” Sara broke the silence between them, Ava let out a soft hum. “You’re going to be great with the baby, I wish you wouldn’t be so hard on yourself. There is nobody more caring, more kind, and more loving than you, Riley and this baby are so lucky to have you as their mom. But, I know you’re scared, it’s normal I’m terrified-”

“You don’t need to be you’re going to be amazing at it, you’ve dealt with babies before,” Ava interrupted. 

“I was in high school and I only had to take care of them for a few hours, it’s a little different when it’s your own babe. It's a whole new experience for both of us. But, as I was saying, I’m terrified but I know that I can do this because I have you by my side and we are going to figure it all out together. Sure we’re gonna mess up sometimes that’s part of being a parent right, as long as we love our kids and give them a loving home I’d say we’re doing pretty well.” 

“I guess you’re right,” Ava mumbled before taking a sip of coffee. 

“I’m sorry what was that? I didn’t hear you properly, did you say that I’m right?” Sara teased, causing Ava to playfully roll her eyes at her. 

“Just this once,” Ava said with a teasing smirk on her face before leaning her head back on Sara’s shoulder. They spent the rest of the afternoon at the park, only leaving when they had to pick Riley up from school. 

It was the most relaxed either woman had felt in a long time, just watching the world pass by them. Their jobs were so time-consuming and demanding, that it sometimes felt impossible for either of them to relax after a day at work; but sitting in the park (even if it was the middle of December and freezing), it was calming and very much needed after the past few months that they had, had.


	8. eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all had a happy holiday, I haven't updated in a while, I have been working on another story, that hopefully, I will be able to post in the new year. But I hope this was worth the wait :)

Christmas and New Year flew by, and although Riley was seemingly back to her usual happy self; she still had her bad days. And today was one of them.

Sara and Ava were going to the doctor’s office for a checkup for Ava and the baby, they planned on leaving her at Quentin’s place to take care of her. But, just as they were about to leave Riley started to protest.

“I want to come with you!” Riley exclaimed as Sara said goodbye to her. She was clinging to her leg, making it very difficult for the captain to move. 

“You can’t baby, you have to stay here with Grandpa. You will have so much more fun here than at the doctor’s office, it’s pretty boring there,” Sara tried to convince her but it wasn’t working.

“I don’t care, I want to come with you! I never get to go with you, I want to see the baby too.” 

“Ry, no. You can come next time, mom and I just want to make sure everything is okay with the baby first, and then next time we have an appointment you can be there front and center to see your sister, okay?” Ava said in an attempt to convince her to stay with Quentin, and it seemed to be working when she let go of Sara’s thigh and moved to stand beside her grandpa.

“Thank you, baby, we won’t be long and when we’re done at the doctor’s office we can go out for lunch and ice-cream, we love you,” Sara said.

They expected Riley to respond with ‘i love you too,’ instead, she responded with, “no you don’t.” Causing the two women to stop dead in their tracks, each of them turning on their heel in perfect synchronization.

“Wha- Riley of course we love you, why would you think that we don’t?” Ava said, her voice wavering slightly as she spoke. The fact that their daughter believed that they were lying to her when they said that they loved her, was heartbreaking. 

“Because you don’t, I think grandpa lied to me when he said that you would still love me even when you had the baby because you already like her better because she’s your real baby, not me,” with that, Riley walked away into the living room with tears in her eyes. 

“Where is this coming from?” Sara said softly, “wait what does she mean by you lied? Has she talked with you about this before?” 

“Yeah at the hospital when Laurel was in labor, I’m sorry I meant to mention it to you but it was all so hectic that I forgot, I thought that me talking it through with her would stop her from feeling that way but clearly it didn’t work,” Quentin said with an apologetic look on his face. 

“That’s a pretty big thing to forget to tell us, dad,” Sara sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. Ava stepped closer to her wife and placed a hand on her upper back. 

“Babe, we should probably go and talk to her,” Ava said softly, Sara nodded her head and followed Ava into the living room. But, Riley was nowhere to be seen they rushed through to the kitchen, which was empty. Ava glanced out of the window and saw the small brunette sitting on the bench, staring out at the garden around her.

They hurried outside and joined her on the bench. However, when they sat down, Riley moved off of the bench but stopped when Sara gently grabbed onto her wrist.

“Baby, come here please, we need to talk about this,” Sara said softly and Riley reluctantly sat back on the bench, in between the two women. 

They sat in silence for a few moments waiting for Riley to say something. When she didn’t speak, Ava broke the silence, “sweetheart, mama, and I love you more than anything else in this world, what makes you think that we don’t?”

Riley didn’t answer for a little while, but the two women were patient with her and she finally answered the question. “A boy in my class keeps telling me that I’m not your real daughter because you adopted me, I didn’t believe him at first but then he said that’s what his mom told him. So, I thought that you want to have a baby so you can have a real daughter, who will be brave like you and won’t get scared because you guys don’t. You’re superheroes and I wish I was brave like you but I’m scared of a lot of things, and I think that maybe you want a baby who isn’t scared of a lot of things.”

When Riley stopped speaking both women had tears falling down their cheeks. Sara managed to wipe them away before Riley saw them but Ava was crying a lot more. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you mommy, please don’t cry.” Riley kneeled up and wiped the tears from Ava’s cheeks. “See this is why the baby is going to be better than me, she won’t make you sad.”

Ava quickly composed herself, “Riley I need you to look at me and I need you to listen. You are perfect just as you are, we don’t expect you to be brave all of the time, that is why we’re here to keep you safe and make it so you can just go through your day like the happy girl you are. It’s normal to not be brave all of the time, I get scared sometimes, so does mama and grandpa, even Uncle Mick. Everyone gets scared of something, it's natural sweetheart. And it doesn’t make us love you any less, we love you no matter what, nothing will ever change that,” Ava paused for a moment, and Sara took that opportunity to speak. 

“And you are our real daughter, we are a family and you are our baby. Nothing will ever change that, and this baby certainly won’t change that. She is just as much our daughter as you are, we’re a family and I need you to ignore the boy who is telling you this stuff because he couldn’t be more wrong, also we need to talk about him more because mom and I are going to speak to school about him because that’s not okay for him to talk to you like that,” Sara tucked a strand of hair behind Riley’s ear and gently pulled her into her side for a hug. 

“I’m sorry that you were feeling this way sweetie, next time something is on your mind no matter how big or small we’re always here to listen and help you through it okay? Please don’t keep things to yourself, it’s not healthy, we don’t even have to talk about it if you just need to get something off of your chest we’re here to listen to you,” Ava said softly. 

“I’m okay now, I just was scared because I thought that you wanted to replace me, I thought Aunt Laurel did too and that’s why she had Luke. But, Grandpa told me that I’m inplaceable,” Riley said with a genuine smile on her face. 

“Irreplaceable,” Ava softly corrected her with a slight chuckle. 

“Yes! That’s the one he said!”

“Well that is very true, you’re irreplaceable, I don’t know what we would do without you honey,” Ava said softly as she wiped loose strands of hair away from Riley’s face. 

“Okay baby we really need to get going but, I promise you when we’re done we can go out for lunch, you get to choose where we go so you better get your thinking cap on,” Sara said as the three of them stood up and headed back into the house. 

They said their goodbyes and headed to the clinic, Sara only went over the speed limit a handful of times. When they arrived the waiting room was quite full, there was only one seat left. They made their way to the front desk to sign in. 

“Hi, I’m here for a check-up, we’re a little late, we got stuck in traffic,” Ava lied but the woman behind the desk showed no emotion instead she shoved a pen and paper in front of Ava and turned her attention back to her computer. 

Ava quickly put her information in the allocated spots and handed it back to the miserable-looking woman. 

“Doctor Harvey is ready for you, go down the hall it’s the second door on the right.”

They followed the directions and found the room straight away. They knocked lightly before being told to ‘come in’. 

“Hi, take a seat, I’m Doctor Olivia Harvey,” the dark-haired woman stood up from behind her desk and shook Ava and Sara’s hands as they each introduced themselves to her. “Okay, is this your first check-up since you found out that you were pregnant?” 

Ava froze, she didn’t want to lie to the doctor, but also if she told them that they had already had a check-up, how would she explain that the person doing the check-up was a futuristic AI on a time machine. 

Luckily, Sara stepped in before Ava could say anything, “one of our friends is a doctor and she checked that everything was going well, while we were trying to find a doctor because we only moved here a few months ago.”

“Okay, so what we are going to do is get you over on that bed Ava, and we’re going to do an ultrasound to check everything is okay and that your baby is growing as they should, and then I can answer any questions that you might have,” the doctor said and the three women moved over to the bed at the other end of the room. 

Ava laid down and pulled her shirt up so that her entire stomach was accessible for the doctor. Sara’s hand immediately found Ava’s, their fingers laced together and each of them had excited smiles on their faces. 

“This might be a little cold, I apologize,” Doctor Harvey said before squirting the gel onto Ava’s stomach. The latter, let out a soft gasp when the gel hit her stomach, it was a lot colder than she was expecting it to be; despite the warning. 

The cold feeling quickly went away though, and the doctor was rubbing the ultrasound probe across the lower part of her stomach. Then, suddenly, the room was filled with a loud beating sound. 

“Is that the heartbeat?” Sara asked, her voice wavering slightly. 

“That is your baby’s heartbeat, I can make a recording of it for you if you would like that?” the doctor asked and both women quickly nodded their heads, each with glistening eyes and huge smiles on their faces. “If you look just there, you will be able to see your baby, she looks as though she is growing at the normal rate and everything seems perfect.”

A few tears rolled down Ava’s cheeks when the doctor pointed out their baby, at first it just looked like a blob on the screen. But, the more that she looked, the less it looked like a blob and more like a baby. There was a clear outline of the baby’s head, and her tiny arms and legs. 

“Oh my god, babe look at our baby,” Ava whispered, she turned her head to look at Sara who was already staring at the screen in complete awe. 

Sara gently squeezed her wife’s hand as she fought back the tears that were threatening to spill. The doctor wiped the gel from Ava’s stomach and slipped out of the room to give them a moment to themselves, she also went to collect the prints of the ultrasound for them. 

“I didn’t feel real until just, now. There is an actual baby in there,” Sara whispered, her eyes still focused on the screen, even though there was no longer anything on it. 

“I know, it’s weird to think that she is in there, I don’t feel that much different, well apart from the morning sickness and how tired I feel,” Ava chuckled softly, the hand that wasn’t holding onto Sara’s moved to rest on her stomach. 

“I love you so much,” Sara leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to Ava’s lips. 

“I love you more,” Ava mumbled against Sara’s lips, just as the doctor entered the room. 

She had an apologetic look on her face, at the fact that she had just walked in at a seemingly personal moment. The three of them moved back to the desk and the doctor talked through every question that Sara and Ava had, although there weren’t that many questions because Ava had done more than enough research, and Sara had been there learning right alongside her. 

Once the appointment was over they headed back to Quentin's place and the second they walked through the front door Riley launched herself at them. 

“I missed you,” Riley mumbled into Ava’s stomach. 

“I missed you too honey, did you have fun with Grandpa?” Ava asked before leaning down and pressing a kiss to Riley’s head. 

“We had so much fun, Luke is here! We went to the park and then fed some ducks on the way home,” Riley whispered the last part, as if it was a huge secret. “Did you get to see her?”

“Mhmm, we did, they gave us a picture of her do you want to see?” Sara asked and Riley nodded her head eagerly. Sara pulled them out of the little envelope they were in and handed one of them to Riley. Just as she was looking at it Quentin emerged from the kitchen with a towel over his shoulder. 

“Hey, how did it go?”

“It went great, she is a healthy little girl, and she’s growing at the normal rate, which is kind of surprising when one of her parents is a human giraffe,” Sara joked, which earned a playful glare from Ava. 

“You’re having a girl?” Quentin asked with a soft smile working its way onto his face and his eyes filling with tears, that he managed to keep at bay. “Wait, it’s a little too early to know that isn’t it?”

Sara scrunched her face up and her hand awkwardly flew to rub the back of her neck, luckily Ava stepped in before she could say anything. “We used technology from the future, that allows the baby to be both of ours biologically, so we didn’t need a man and without a man it would be impossible to have anything other than a girl.”

Quentin looked a little confused before the expression on his face turned to something that looked as though he was impressed. The conversation was soon interrupted by the sound of crying coming from the next room. Riley sprinted away from them and towards the portable crib in the living room, where her baby cousin was crying. Quentin followed suit, as did Ava and Sara. 

The second Quentin scooped him up into his arms the crying stopped and the baby boy was content in his grandpa's warm embrace. 

“Oh, I think he was lonely,” Riley said with a sad frown on her face. She sat down beside Quentin and gently ran her finger over Lucas’ chubby cheek. “You will have a friend as small as you pretty soon, and then you won’t be lonely,” Riley whispered. 

They stayed at Quentin's place until Lucas fell back to sleep. They said their goodbyes and left quietly. 

“Okay Ry Ry, the rest of the day is yours, what do you feel like doing first? Are you hungry? Do you want to go to the movies? Whatever you want to do we can, within reason,” Sara said as she glanced at her through the rear-view mirror of the car. The small girl's face was scrunched up in thought. 

“Can we go to the trampoline park? Please, please, please?” She asked with her hands clasped together in front of her. Sara glanced to her side to confirm with her wife whether or not she should agree, Ava just shrugged her shoulders as if to say ‘why not.’

“Okay, we can go to the trampoline park,” Sara said before driving to the place. 

The park was filled with excited kids. The moment they walked through the entrance the smell of the various foods hit Ava and made her feel nauseous. She took a few deep breaths and tried to ignore it. But the further into the building they get after paying, the smells just got stronger and the smell of hot dogs, burgers, and fries all mixed together and she couldn’t keep it in any longer. She glanced around before spotting the bathroom sign and running towards it. 

“Babe do you wanna go and find a table while I take her to get some of the socks and-” Sara stopped talking when she realized that Ava was no longer by her side. “Babe?” 

“She ran over there, I think she’s excited about the trampolines!” Riley said with a giggle before pointing in the direction of the bathroom. 

Sara grabbed Riley’s hand and the two of them went in search of Ava. The bathroom was fairly empty and there’s only one stall in use, Sara assumed that it’s Ava and knocked on the door. 

“Babe are you okay?” Sara questioned but was responded to with the sound of Ava throwing up. The door was locked so she couldn’t go in and hold her hair back for her or rub circles on her back. “Ry I have a very special mission for you, are you up for it?” Riley nodded her head eagerly before Sara told her what she has to do, “okay I need you to crawl under there and hold mommy’s hair back for her and rub her back, you know like she does for you when you aren’t feeling good, and I will be right back.”

Riley quickly crawled under the large gap between the door and the floor. “Hi mommy, it’s me don’t worry it’s my mission to help you feel better,” Riley’s eyes glistened at the fact that she had a mission. Just like her mom whenever she has to work, it made her excited and for a second she got so excited about having a mission that she forgot why she was in the tiny cubicle with Ava. However, when Ava leaned over and threw up again, she remembered and gently pulled Ava’s hair into her hands but then she struggled a little. Ava had too much hair to fit into just one of her small hands, so she had to use both, but that meant she couldn’t rub her back for her; so she decided that her elbow would do the trick. 

Luckily, Sara returned pretty quickly and Riley was able to unlock the door to let Sara into the already cramped stall. She handed Ava a bottle of water, she accepted it gratefully as she stood up from her crouching position by the toilet. She had a few sips and seemed to feel a lot better. 

“Are you okay?” Sara asked with a concerned look in her eyes. 

“Yeah, I don’t think the little one appreciated all of the different smells,” Ava said with a soft chuckle. “Come on let’s get out of here, wash your hands sweetie and then we can sanitize them.”

They did just that before Riley ran out of the bathroom with Sara and Ava following close behind. She and Sara went to get some socks for her and the small girl wasted no time before heading to the trampolines. 

Meanwhile, Sara and Ava were sitting at a table close by, so that they could keep an eye on her. Sara reached over and grabbed hold of Ava’s hand, their fingers linking together as Sara brought their hands up to her lips and pressed a soft kiss to the back of Ava’s hand. 

“How are you feeling?” She asked softly. 

“Nauseous, she does not like the smell of greasy fast food,” Ava chuckled and moved her free hand to rest on her still flat stomach. 

“Just like her mom then,” Sara replied. 

The two of them glanced in the direction where Riley was jumping on the trampoline. But she was no longer there, panic started to rise in them both when they couldn’t see her anywhere else. Then all of a sudden she was right in front of them and the women felt as though they could breathe again. 

“Hey, sweetie are you having fun?” Ava questioned when she sat down in the empty seat opposite them. 

“Yeah, it’s just not as fun on my own, can you come with me? Pretty please?” Riley asked, looking at her mom's with her best puppy-dog eyes. 

They both found it hard to say no when she looked at them that way, but Ava was not feeling good enough to jump around. Luckily, Sara let go of Ava’s hand and stood up before she said, “okay come on then.”

Sara tried to act cool and as if she wasn’t super excited that she got to join their daughter on the trampolines but Ava could see right through her. The excited glint in her eyes and her huge smile gave her away. 

“Are you going to be okay here? I’m sure she will get hungry or tired soon enough and we will be back,” Sara said and Ava just waved her off. 

“I’ll be fine, go on,” Ava said and Sara didn’t need to be told twice. She quickly followed Riley over to one of the empty trampolines in the corner, right next to the foam pit and the dodgeball area. 

Ava sat back in her chair, taking pictures of the two of them with identical smiles on their faces as they jumped up and down; their hair flying everywhere. 

As awful as Ava felt, it was nice to just sit back and watch her two favorite people enjoy themselves. At that moment they didn’t have a care in the world and it was clear on their faces. She snapped a few more pictures before just watching them have fun.


	9. nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been a hot minute, life has been busy and I have been focusing on my President AU. I forgot that I had this written and ready to go, so here's another chapter and I hope that you enjoy it :)

By the beginning of the second trimester, Ava didn’t feel nauseous every time she smelled food. 

Instead, her cravings kicked in full force. For just over two weeks she had been eating an entire pineapple, all to herself, every single day. Along with her cravings for spaghetti bolognese almost every morning, which Sara found very weird but she made it for her anyway. It also made Riley very excited to be able to sometimes eat that for breakfast too. 

However, the morning didn’t start off with spaghetti and excited smiles from Riley. No. Sara was startled awake at 6:30 am by Ava calling her name from their en-suite. 

It was so early and Sara was still half-asleep. Her body moved automatically at the sound of her wife’s voice. She was so tired her brain didn’t register the excitement and happiness in her wife’s voice, instead, she just heard her name being called and immediately thought that something was wrong. 

“What? What’s going on, are you okay?” Sara asked, her voice trembled slightly due to worry. 

“Look!” Ava exclaimed as she opened her robe to reveal her naked, freshly-showered body. Sara raised an eyebrow as she looked Ava up and down, suddenly she wasn’t so tired anymore. 

“No not that, get your mind out of the gutter, look!” Ava said again, this time turning to the side slightly and Sara finally realized what she was trying to show her. 

There was a bump. An honest to god bump. Their baby was growing there. The sight of it almost made Sara cry, but she didn’t, she bit back the tears and stepped closer to her wife. 

“You scared the hell out of me, I thought something was wrong, that you were hurt, you jerk,” Sara playfully slapped Ava’s bicep before looking back at the small bump. 

It was only small and not too noticeable to anybody who didn’t know that it was there. But Sara and Ava knew and it felt like the most incredible thing in the world.

Sara’s hands moved to cup Ava’s cheeks and their lips met in a chaste kiss. They pulled away from one another and Sara turned her attention to the bump, she dropped to her knees so that she was almost level with Ava’s stomach. 

“Hi, my little peach,” Sara began, earning a smile from Ava because of the nickname for their little girl. The week before they realized that she was the same size as a peach and the nickname just kind of stuck. The captain was now whispering something into Ava’s stomach, something that she couldn’t quite hear. 

“Do you mind waking Riley up while I dry my hair, please babe,” Ava asked when Sara finally stood up straight again. 

“Mhmm,” she mumbled before leaving the room and heading towards their daughter’s room. “Goodmorning baby, are you ready to get up?” Sara asked softly as she went and sat beside Riley on the bed. 

The small girl just shook her head and buried herself further under the covers. Sara let out a soft chuckle as she peeled the covers back to see Riley curled up in a little ball with her hair going in a million different directions. 

“No? Not even if I said that it was supposed to snow all night? And we might be able to make a snowman before school?” Sara said and Riley slowly lifted her head up to look at Sara suspiciously. 

“You’re just pretending so that I will get out of bed,” Riley said with narrowed eyes. 

“Let’s go and have a look then lazy butt,” Sara stood up from the bed and opened the blinds to see the ground outside covered in a thick sheet of snow. “Told you.”

“We have to go outside! This means we can make our own hockey ring!” Riley was quickly out of bed and jumping up and down in excitement. 

“We can certainly try, but you have to get dressed and brush your teeth first,” Sara said and Riley skipped over to her drawers and grabbed the first shirt and pants that she saw. They were a complete miss-match so Sara quickly changed out the pants for a blue pair of jeans rather than the bright blue sweatpants she had originally picked out. “I’m going to change and when I come back you better have brushed your teeth.”

Sara went back to her and Ava’s room to see Ava’s hair fully dry and flowing down her back as she stared at her stomach in the mirror. She came to a halt and just stared at her. She was standing there in all her naked glory, her skin practically glowing because of the pregnancy. 

“I can feel you staring,” Ava mumbled, her eyes drifting from her small bump over to Sara. 

“What do you expect? My incredibly hot wife is standing in the middle of our room completely naked,” Sara said as she took a few big strides over to Ava. She wrapped her arms loosely around the taller woman’s neck and pulled her close so that their fronts were flushed together. 

“I don’t know about hot, I feel anything but that right now,” Ava said softly, almost as if she had just revealed her biggest secret. 

Sara frowned slightly, a little confused as to why Ava didn’t think that she looked hot, beautiful even, Sara thought. 

“I look bloated and gross, how could you possibly think that I look good right now?” Ava questioned when Sara didn’t say anything. She looked down at the floor and very quickly remembered that she was still very much butt naked. She pulled away and scurried over to their bed to pull her robe over herself. 

“Ava, you are very far from gross. You’re beautiful, the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, and this,” Sara slipped her hands under Ava’s robe and let them rest on the small bump, “this only makes you more beautiful, you are growing and carrying our child.”

“So you aren’t going to leave me when I get so fat that I end up walking like a penguin?” Ava said, still avoiding eye contact with Sara. 

“Wha- no of course I’m not going to leave you over something like that, Ava, you are the love of my life, my soulmate, you wouldn’t be able to get rid of me even if you tried. Til death do us part, remember? And I think by now, both of us know that even death can’t keep me from you,” Sara said but Ava still avoided looking at her. So, Sara put her fingers under Ava’s chin and lifted her head gently, “babe look at me, please don’t worry about things like that, I love you, I love you so much and you’re always going to be the most beautiful person to me, no matter how you look, I promise you that.”

Ava finally looked her in the eye and said, “I love you so much. I know you would never leave me, it’s just the stupid hormones, I feel like I’m going crazy, one minute I’m completely fine and the next I’m snapping at Gary for using the wrong paper.”

“I don’t think that’s the hormones making you do that babe,” Sara joked, finally earning a soft laugh from her wife before Ava rolled her eyes and playfully slapped her arm. 

Their bedroom door swung open and Riley stepped through, fully dressed and wearing a beanie that was pulled down to her eyebrows almost covering her eyes. 

“Mom, come on! I brushed my teeth already and I got dressed! Stop kissing, we have to go and play in the snow,” Riley said, she crossed her arms across her chest and stomped her foot slightly, just to show how impatient she was getting. 

“Hey, what have we said about doing that? Huh? It’s rude Riley, you have to be patient, go get your shoes on and then we will go outside,” Sara said as she pointed towards their bedroom door. 

“I’m sorry,” Riley mumbled before turning around and leaving the room. 

Sara let her hand fall from Ava’s stomach as she moved over to her dresser and began getting changed. Ava followed suit and threw her white button up on and then her pants. She struggled with the button on her pants before eventually giving up and accepting that they weren’t going to fasten. 

She removed the pants and threw them onto the bed, before grabbing another pair and trying them on. Even though she knew that they were exactly the same and she would be met with the same result. When she couldn’t fasten them, she threw the pants on the bed to join the other pair. 

“Did the bureau change the uniform?” Sara teased when she noticed that Ava had sat down on the bed wearing her white button-up but no pants. 

Ava turned to glare at her, “no, my stupid pants don’t fit.”

“Do you want me to have Gideon fabricate you some more?” Sara asked softly as she sat down beside her wife. 

“No, that is a waste of resources, I’ll just try to put them on again, maybe I stood weird,” Ava stood up from the bed and attempted to put the pants on again. This time with her back a little straighter. But it didn’t make a difference the pants wouldn’t close. She sat back on the bed, the pants hanging open, in defeat. 

“Okay, you are going to change into some sweatpants and a warmer shirt, and I am going to call Gary and tell him you’re sick and are taking the day off. Riley’s school just sent out a text saying they’re closed because of the snow, so the three of us are having a snow day,” Sara said leaving no room for Ava to protest. She stood up from the bed with her phone in hand, she grabbed some sweatpants for Ava and threw them in her direction before leaving the room to call Gary. 

“Mom I’m stuck, I did the zip wrong,” Riley grumbled once Sara was finished on the phone. The captain glanced down at her daughter to see that she had messed the zip of her coat up, and the actual zip part was halfway up the coat, making it wonky. 

“Come here monkey,” Sara said with a soft chuckle before getting to work on fixing the zip for her. “Your school sent a text out saying that you get a snow day, you don’t have to go to school and mommy doesn’t have to work, so we have the day all to ourselves,” Sara explained once the zip was fixed and Riley’s eyes lit up in excitement. 

“Really?” She questioned not quite believing her mom.

“Really! Now what do you say we get out there and make some snowballs ready to throw at mommy,” Sara said and a mischievous glint worked its way to Riley’s eyes as she nodded her head before running out to the garden. 

“I don’t know how to make one,” Riley said with a frown as the snow just continued to crumble in her hands as she tried to form a ball. 

“You have to squeeze the snow together, look like this,” Sara showed her how to do it and Riley gave it another go, this time it worked and she had a tiny snowball in her gloved hand. 

The two of them got to work in making them and Sara told Riley to hide when she saw Ava through the window. She hid behind the large plant pot that sat beside the door and jumped out in front of Ava when she walked into the garden. Making it so the snowball hit Riley in the stomach. 

Riley dramatically fell to the floor clutching her stomach. Ava very quickly grew concerned for her daughter, worried that she was actually hurt. It became very apparent that she wasn’t when she exclaimed, “I’ve been hit, mommy you have to save yourself.”

“Traitor,” Sara called out from where she was hiding across the garden. 

Ava let out a soft chuckle before scooping Riley up into her arms, “we have to get you to safety, and defeat the evil canary,” Ava said with a huge smile on her face, while also thinking that Riley maybe shouldn’t watch as many action movies as she does. 

Regardless, Riley very quickly bounced back and began making more snowballs. Ava attempted to make some too but much as Riley did before, they crumbled in her hands. 

“You have to squeeze them into a ball,” Riley explained and Sara threw a snowball in their direction, hitting Ava in the back of the head with it. “Hey! That’s mean!”

“Oh yeah? How about this?” Sara called out as she threw another snowball. This time it hit Riley’s shoulder. 

The two of them ducked down behind the outdoor couch. They made a good amount of snowballs, ready to throw in Sara’s direction. 

“Okay Agent Lance, we need a plan of attack,” Ava said, half-serious. 

“Yes, Agent, wait we both can’t be called agent Lance that’s silly, you need a nickname,” Riley’s face scrunched up in thought as another snowball was thrown their way, skimming the top of Ava’s head. “You can be called Captain Giraffe! Because you’re super tall and you are the boss of me and mom!” 

Ava wasn’t sure whether she should be offended by the name or not. But, she found it pretty amusing the more that she thought about it. 

“Now that we have that established, we need to come up with a plan, how about I distract the evil canary and you sneak around to her side and attack her with more snowballs,” Ava suggested and Riley agreed immediately. “See you on the other side Agent Lance,” Ava mock saluted and Riley did the same before getting ready to run to where Sara was hiding. 

Ava gave her a subtle nod and began throwing snowballs in Sara’s direction, meaning that Riley could run over to her. She was equipped with a snowball in each hand and was almost at Sara when she felt some arms around her waist and her feet were no longer on the floor, as she was thrown over the person's shoulder. 

“Captain Giraffe I have been caught! Help!” Riley yelled out before bursting out into laughter as Nate carried her over to Sara. 

They reached Sara’s side of the garden and Nate placed her down on a chair. Once she realized that the rest of the legends were standing around her with Sara, excitement filled her eyes because she hadn't seen them for a couple of weeks. But, she remembered the game and tried to look scary, but she ended up just looking adorable with a scrunched-up face. 

“My Captain Giraffe will never let you get away with this, this is just mean, you can’t have this many people on your team,” Riley’s face was still scrunched up and her arms were folded over her chest. It was taking everything in Sara and the legends to not just burst into laughter. 

Behind the Legends, Riley noticed that Ava was sneaking up towards them with snowballs in her hands, she lifted a finger to her lips to tell Riley not to let them know that she was approaching. Riley very quickly diverted her eyes and looked up at Sara. 

Ava tried to be quiet as she hid behind a tall bush, but she knew that Sara knew exactly where she was, no matter how quiet she was. 

“Where is Captain Giraffe? She has information that we need, if you tell us where she is, we will let you go,” Sara said as she crouched down in front of Riley, Nate and Behrad stepped closer to her with their arms crossed over their chests. But, Riley just looked at them with narrowed eyes and refused to let up. 

“You won’t get me to talk,” Riley grumbled with a glare on her face, that was supposed to look tough, but once again she just looked adorable. 

“Okay, we are going to have to do this another way then, boys, get me my snowballs,” Sara stood up and turned to face them. But, they didn’t have any snowballs at the ready, “I sure hope that she doesn’t run away while we’re gathering the snowballs.”

Riley glanced up and realized that they were all busy, she took the opportunity to jump up from her seat and ran away from them. 

“Get her!” Sara called out when they turned around and noticed that Riley was running away. Behrad, Nate, and Charlie chased her, throwing snowballs in her direction as they did so, each one of them failing to hit her. Sara’s attention was very quickly turned to her wife, who was now standing by the table in the middle of the patio area, talking to Zari. 

Sara chuckled as she watched Riley dive behind the outdoor couch, she moved quickly to make snowballs and tried to aim them at Nate, Behrad, and Charlie but missed almost every time. 

After watching them for a few moments she turned her attention back to Ava and Zari. Now, Ava had her coat undone and was turned to the side as she showed her growing stomach to her best friend. She had the biggest smile on her face and Zari looked very excited about it, especially when she made Ava stand sideways so that she could take a picture of Ava and the bump. After snapping a few pictures she made Sara join her. The latter begrudgingly agreed, but the two women knew she was secretly very excited about having her picture taken. 

“Riley! Come here,” Zari called out across the garden. The small girl bounded over to them covered in snow. 

She let out a soft gasp when she noticed the small bump. She was about to run towards her mom's but saw Zari holding her camera up, thinking that she was taking pictures of her mom's cuddled together with Sara’s hand resting on the bump, she came to a sudden halt and moved to Zari’s side. 

“Sorry,” Riley said, thinking that she had accidentally ruined the picture by walking right in front of them. 

“Come here,” Sara said and motioned for Riley to join them. 

Riley was still very insecure about the idea of them having a baby, no matter how many times they reassured her that nothing was going to change and that it wasn’t going to change how much they loved her. Whenever the baby was brought up Riley seemed to shrink in on herself, so they did everything they could to make it clear to her that they loved her more than anything and absolutely nothing would change that. 

Zari snapped a few pictures, with Riley standing between her moms with a big toothy grin. It wasn’t long until Zari decided that they had, had enough pictures and moved over to Nate, Charlie, and B. And so Riley turned to look up at Ava with her face scrunched up, as she watched her button her coat back up. 

“Is that the baby in there?” Riley asked looking at the area where the bump was, which was now covered by Ava’s coat. 

Ava nodded her head, “she is, she’s growing so fast and it won’t be long until we get to meet her.”

“How long until she gets here?” Riley asked, as though the baby was just catching a plane ride to them. 

“Around six months,” Sara said and Riley’s face went through a range of emotions in such a short amount of time. She looked, scared, excited, and very anxious all at the same time. 

All that came out of her mouth was, “oh.” 

Her face scrunched up and she looked up at Ava and Sara and said, “but she doesn’t have a name or a bedroom, will she have to sleep in my room?”

“No, of course not Ry, she’s going to have her own room and we haven’t talked about names yet, we still have so much time, but what do you think we should name her?”

Riley shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, maybe Alex or Ferb that’s a cool name.” 

“Okay we will add them to the list,” Sara chuckled at the second one. Lately, Riley had been very invested in Phineas and Ferb, and her favorite hockey player is called Alex so they expected nothing less. Sara and Ava shared a look over the top of their daughter's head, that said that they both liked the name, Alex. 

“Can we have hot chocolate now? My fingers feel all tingly,” Riley said as she tugged her hat further down her head so it was almost covering her eyes. 

“Yes we can, come on honey,” Ava held out her hand for Riley to grab onto and the two-headed inside while Sara rounded up the legends. 

Once they were inside Ava and Riley removed their coats and shoes. Ava grabbed Riley’s hands in her own and rubbed them together to help warm them up a little and then wrapped a large blanket around Riley’s shoulders. 

“Is that better?” Ava questioned and Riley nodded her head enthusiastically. “Okay let’s go make some hot chocolate!”

They spent the rest of the day bundled together on the couch. Ava and Sara on one end of it, Ava’s legs were draped over Sara’s thighs. While the Legends were dotted around the room, Zari and Charlie were on the opposite couch, with Behrad and Nate squished together beside them. John and Mick grumbled about hating the snow and portaled back to the waverider the second they realized that the city was covered in snow. Riley alternated between sitting with her moms and being tucked in the tiny gap between Zari and Behrad.

**Author's Note:**

> As always thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, let me know about your thoughts and feelings in the comments :))


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